Exhausted firies and volunteers battling ‘a lot’ of deliberately lit blazes, as police confirm man charged

VOLUNTEER firefighters have been battling ‘a lot of deliberately lit fires’ around the clock the head of Bushfires NT has said, as police confirm a man has been charged for allegedly sparking one of the blazes

• Locals face nervous wait after fires tear through Adelaide River, Batchelor, Dorat Rd, Lake Bennett
• Dozens of fire crews called to battle Gunn Point Rd blaze

VOLUNTEER firefighters have been battling “a lot of deliberately lit fires” around the clock the head of Bushfires NT has said, as police confirm a man has been charged for allegedly sparking one of the blazes.

The 24-year-old man has been denied bail by police and will appear before the Darwin Local Court on Monday.

Bushfires NT executive director Collene Bremner said volunteers had been working “continuously” through the night, following a week of catastrophic and extreme fire conditions, to get containment lines in place around the Batchelor and rural areas.

“A lot of those fires were deliberately lit … they were lit by people, obviously in some form or another,” she said.

“We found that we were continuously going back on a number of occasions to fires that we had downgraded to advice saying the fires had been contained but the winds … would whip them up again and so our staff and volunteers were going back to the same fire

NT Police Superintendent Daniel Shean warned that severe fire conditions would remain in the Darwin Adelaide River area for Saturday, with very high fire danger expected on Sunday as the humidity gradually increases and the winds ease slightly.

“To that end we’re not out of the clear, (while the) catastrophic part might have passed, we’re still not out of the clear and we’re still up for a dangerous weekend in terms of bushfires,” he said.

Supt Shean confirmed that a 24-year-old man who police had been speaking to in connection to fires being lit in the Darwin Adelaide River area had since been charged with one count of causing a bushfire and had been refused bail.

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Firefighters work to bring the Gunn Point Road fire under control on Friday while working in windy conditions. Picture: Che Chorley

It comes as fire crews were pushed to their limits again Friday working to contain a blaze in Batchelor after winds of up to 60 km/h edged it closer to Litchfield National Park.

Bushfires NT’s Andrew Turner said about 10 crews were on the ground in Batchelor again on Friday as a large fire between Fowler and Windmill Rd moved north-west.

“We’ve been surveying the fire ground again today (Friday) and it’s turned into a strange cylinder shaped oval after passing through a valley,” he said.

“Our crews managed to stop and contain it before it reached Litchfield and it’s now just adjacent of the park.

“There are few spots of bush that are still burning, and should continue to do so for the next few days, because those areas are quite thick and haven’t been burnt in while.”

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He said the residential properties that were at risk on Thursday near Windmill and Scott Rd were now in the clear.

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