Firefighters in the Northern Territory reported to have control of Territory Day celebrations

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Firefighters in the Northern Territory reported to have control of Territory Day celebrations

More than 100 incidents of fire have been reported in the Northern Territory during the Territory Day celebrations, according to Northern Territory emergency services.

On the one time a year it is legal to let off fireworks, thousands of tonnes of pyrotechnics were set off across the Northern Territory last night.

NT Police Watch Commander Josh Cunningham said people were mostly well behaved, but windy conditions kept firefighters busy.

He said they seemed to have everything under control last night.

The weather over the last couple of days, with a bit of rain, worked on their side, and I think there was a lot of grass fires.

There was no damage to property. Emergency services had been disappointed after some Territory Day revellers had allegedly aimed fireworks at firefighters during the night.

That happened a number of times last night, so that was disappointing, he said.

There were no injuries, no injuries or damages, thankfully. The behaviour of some people around emergency services was criticised by Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service assistant chief fire officer Joshua Fischer.

The majority of the public were well behaved. He said that it was disappointing to see that some of our firefighters had to deal with people acting irresponsible with fireworks.

There were instances of fireworks being let off in the direction of firefighting vehicles while crews were attending to incidents and from high-rise building balconies. Fischer said crews had been stretched on the night, and at times tried to attend multiple fires at a time.

Our crews, with the support of our volunteers, worked tirelessly to protect properties and thankfully no structures were lost, he said.

He said people in the Northern Territory should be vigilant and keep an eye on fires over the weekend.

He said it was now illegal to light fireworks.

He said that while you may legally possess fireworks until Monday, July 4, it is now illegal to light any unspent fireworks.

NT Police attended at least one fatal accident last night - a car crash in Darwin - but police did not say it was related to Territory Day celebrations.

On Friday night, police were called to the Stuart Highway near Winnellie after reports that a pedestrian had been hit by a vehicle.

The male pedestrian, police said, died at the scene.