Alice Springs Fireys Simon Casey and Tanner Coulthard talk WA deployment

Two Red Centre fireys are back home and sharing their story after travelling west to help battle a blaze south of Perth. Find out how it went.

Gera Kazakov

@gera_kazakov

less than 2 min read

March 6, 2025 - 6:00AM

NT Fire and Rescue Service firefighter Tanner Coulthard and Bushfires NT fire management officer Simon Casey at the Alice Springs fire station. Picture: Gera Kazakov

Northern Territory

Don't miss out on the headlines from Northern Territory. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Two Red Centre fireys have given their comrades in the west a well earned rest and tagged in to battle a blaze they say was a “real eye opener”.

NT Fire and Rescue Service firefighter Tanner Coulthard and Bushfires NT fire management officer Simon Casey have returned to Alice Springs after heading to WA to help fight a fire.

The duo were part of a 17-strong cohort from the NT who travelled south of Perth to Manjimup to help battle a bushfire.

NT Fire and Rescue Service firefighter Tanner Coulthard and Bushfires NT fire management officer Simon Casey at the Alice Springs fire station. March 5 2025. Picture: Gera Kazakov

For Mr Coulthard, it was his first interstate deployment, while Mr Casey had completed previous deployments to NSW.

“We’re there to help with the WA crews with the fatigue management to give them a rest as they were there for numerous weeks,” Mr Coulthard said.

“It was a great experience going interstate, learning and seeing how other states do it.”

Mr Casey said the south west of WA was “completely different to Alice Springs” and was a “real eye opener”.

“I joked with one of the local guys, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many trees in 10 years of fighting fires in Alice Springs’,” he said.

“It was really heavily wooded forest country, you know, 300 foot high trees, you’re constantly getting out of your vehicle and the first thing you did was look it up.

“We did a section along one of the (fire) breaks that all we were doing was identifying trees that might fall … with that many trees, there’s a lot of chance of something falling.”