Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service, or NTFRS, (in conjunction with Bushfires NT[1]) is the primary provider of fire and rescue services throughout the 1.35 million square km Northern Territory of Australia. It is made up of 27 fire stations, 16 being staffed by volunteer brigade units, 5 being staffed 24 hours a day by career fire fighters, and the remainder by a mix of career and auxiliary fire fighters.
The NTFRS is made up approximately 180 permanent staff working in the regional centres of Darwin, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Yulara and Jabiru, as well as 54 part-time auxiliaries and approximately 250 volunteers.[2]
The NTFRS is part of the NT Government "Tri-Service", Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services, or NTPFES. The CEO of the NTPFES and Commissioner of Northern Territory Police in 2022 was Jamie Chalker, APM. The NTPFES falls under the portfolio of the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services.[3]
History
Unlike many other Australian brigades the NTFRS is relatively young. The first permanent Chief Fire Officer took command of a newly formed Darwin civil brigade on 31 October 1941, however following the Bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces during World War II, fire fighting duties were assumed by the military after general evacuation of the civilian population. This made The Northern Territory Fire Service the only capital city Australian Fire Service to serve under enemy fire. It was not until 1946 that the Darwin civil brigade was reformed, with another small brigade formed in the large regional centre of Alice Springs in 1949.
The original Darwin fire station and fire service headquarters was located in Darwin city on Daly street, this station was closed and the Iliffe street station was opened in Oct 1988. Serving outer Darwin was the Winnellie Fire station opened in 1970–71, which was closed with the opening of the Palmerston Fire station in the newly formed satellite city of Palmerston in 1984. Serving the rural area of Darwin is the Humpty Doo station that was opened in 2005. To better serve the Northern suburbs of Darwin the old Casuarina station was closed and the new Marrara fire station was opened on 14 June 2007.
The history of the NTFRS was researched and written by former Assistant Commissioner of the NT Police Bill Wilson.[4]
Organisational structure
Director/Chief Fire Officer – Mark Spain
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Territory Operations – Stephen Sewell
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Strategy and Capability – Joshua Fischer
District Officer Fire Safety Command
District Officer Training and Development Command – Ian Lockley
Alice Springs Rural (VFB), Bathurst Island (VFB), Virginia Bees Creek (VFB), Howard Springs (VFB), Humpty Doo (VFB), Koolpinyah (VFB), Larrimah (VFB), Yirrkala (VFB), Adelaide River (FERG), Bachelor (FERG), Borroloola (FERG), Elliott (FERG), Mataranka (FERG), Pine Creek (FERG), Timber Creek (FERG)
NTFRS Vehicles include a new fleet of Scania medium and heavy pumpers, and older medium and heavy Freightliner pumps, an aerial appliance, numerous tankers and grass fire units, plus rescue, command and utility vehicles. The NTFRS also has trailers for Fire Investigation, Rapid Decontamination and a BA trailer for refilling SCBA Cylinders in the field.
Due to the relatively small size of the NTFRS, rather than having dedicated specialised sections, general firefighters are trained in various disciplines, including: HAZMAT, USAR, Road Crash Rescue, Paramedic, School Based Education, and Wildfire.
Callsign Structure
The NTFRS uses a callsign system for appliances, designed to identify a vehicles class and which brigade it belongs to over the radio. The callsign features the brigades name, followed by a numerical sequence, with the first number in that sequence identifying the vehicles class, and the numbers following identify that vehicles own number within that class. For example, the callsign "Alice Springs 915" tells us the vehicles is an Isuzu Tanker, belonging to the Alice Springs Fire Station, and is the 15th vehicle within the Isuzu Tanker class. All vehicles within the NTFRS are required to have the numerical sequence printed on the roof of the vehicle, allowing for easier identification from waterbombing aircraft deployed at bushfires.
This table shows how the NTFRS has allocated numerical callsigns. The NTFRS doesn't use the number "5" for any callsigns.
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