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Group Of Volunteer Firefighters In New South Wales Working Without Pay; Group Of Celebrity Ducks Who Are Treated Like Royals. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired March 30, 2023 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hey, everybody, happy Thursday, or as I like to say, happy Friday eve. Overmorrow it will be Saturday. But first, let`s
finish this week strong. We`ve got a lot to get to, not a lot of time to do it, so let`s get to it.
Now, teacher we`re going to whip through some headlines, and as always, we recommend you preview each episode of CNN 10. One of them today involves
coverage of school safety concerns following news out of Nashville this week. Here are some headlines from around the world.
This month, the U.S. and South Korea restarted joint military drills on the Korean Peninsula, including this simulated storming of a beach. These
drills previously took place annually, but they hadn`t happened at this scale in five years. The U.S. maintains that the drills are defensive in
nature, while North Korea views this military cooperation as a threat.
In the United States, six people were killed in a school shooting in Nashville on Monday. This marked the 16th school shooting this year in the
U.S. The tragic event has sparked further debate among lawmakers in Washington, D.C. over U.S. gun control laws and has many parents and school
officials reviewing their safety protocols yet again.
Finally, in the art world, scientists say they`ve identified a secret ingredient in Leonardo da Vinci`s paintings, egg yolks. That`s right.
According to a new study published this week, European painting masters like da Vinci may have used proteins, especially egg yolks, in their oil
paintings.
This new study finds that the inclusion of egg was intentional and was a technique used to fine tune properties of the paint. That wraps your quick
look at the headlines. Now pop quiz, hotshot.
Ten second trivia.
What is the capital of Australia? Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne or Brisbane?
Though Melbourne was once the capital, Canberra became the official capital of Australia in 1927.
Being a firefight fighter is one of the most dangerous professions on the planet. And did you know that wildfires in Australia are some of the
largest and hottest on the planet? They can be devastating, completely destroying homes and habitats alike. But there`s a group of volunteer
firefighters in New South Wales working without pay to keep people and animals safe. We`re going to meet two of these heroic people to hear why
they`re willing to risk it all to keep others safe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAUREN WILSON, ADVANCE FIREFIGHTER, OAKS RURAL FIRE BRIGADE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL: When I tell people I`m a firefighter, I actually get a lot of
mixed reactions. Oh, you do all that for free? What makes you do that? It really does spark a lot of curiosity in people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Australia battles some of the largest and hottest wildfires on the planet. The fire season in Australia typically runs from
October until the end of March, when temperatures are at their highest. Most of the firefighting is conducted by the Rural Fire Service, a
volunteer force separate to state emergency services. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has more than 70,000 members.
ANDREW HAIN, SENIOR DEPUTY CAPTAIN, PICTON RURAL FIRE BRIGADE INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT PLANNER: We were founded in 1939 by local farmers and local
residents that needed a firefighting service in the area, and it was a bunch of guys with old trucks or trailers. Now we`re sitting here in a
million dollar plus facility with these trucks that are basically a multi- tool. We do flood work in this. We do fires, car accidents, house fires.
WILSON: We`re coming into a family of a long line of firefighters. I believe there is that little bit of pressure. I can remember when I first
told my father-in-law that I had joined. The first thing he said to me was, as long as you can operate a pump, you`ll be fine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a volunteer service, recruits come from all walks of life and require intense training before being deployed.
HAIN: It`s a huge amount of effort. A lot of hours go into training a new recruit. It`s not for bragging rights, it`s because they`ve got to go out
on the truck with you. You need to be able to work with everybody from different backgrounds. You know, people that work in corporate, people that
work in construction, you`d name it. We`ve probably got it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) they`ve come Picton 1 blue.
HAIN: The common thing is this desire to help people. So you`ve got to be willing to give your time to someone else for a thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 2019 and 2020, what became known as the Black Summer Fires burned 10.3 million land across the country.
HAIN: We were tasked to go into property protection, but the house was in a spot that was very difficult to defend. One road in, one road out. But then
you walk around this house and you look in the back window and it is a carbon copy of my kids bedroom. There`s Lego all over the floor, there`s
posters on the wall. This family have literally bundled everything they can into the car and they`ve left. They don`t know that there`s someone there
to look after their house, but you staying there and maybe putting in that extra time and that extra work is going to be the reason they have a house
to come back to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deadly fires claimed 33 lives, including nine firefighters. More than 3000 homes were destroyed. The house Andrew and his
crew protected was one of 14,000 saved in New South Wales. Recent years have seen some of the largest fires ever recorded. Unchecked climate change
means they could grow larger still.
HAIN: When I was growing up, there`d be fires and they`d occur, but there was nothing massive. Now they seem to be getting bigger and they talk about
megafires and giga fires just on that scale. I don`t recall anything like that.
The balance for work life, family life and the RFS can be difficult. I`ve got a five-year-old and a seven-year-old kid.
There any little boys at home?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy. Daddy.
HAIN: Hello, buddy.
They see the yellow shirt goes on and they know something`s happening. You know, they`ll be like, handing me car keys as I`m going out the door.
They`re like a little support crew. It`s quite funny.
It gets difficult to juggle, but the rewards worth it. When someone says, you know, we need help, and then you can be the person to go and deliver
that help, that`s very rewarding.
There`s nothing tangible that you get given for it. It`s just a sense of pride. I`ll be with the service for as long as I can be, but whether that`s
time and an able body, or whether it just ends up not maybe being an able body. I`m just one of those old guys telling war stories. If it`s of
benefit, I`ll be here for as long as they`ll have me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: I don`t know if I need to quack any jokes today, because today`s story, getting a 10 out of 10 about ducks is funny enough. There`s an
historic hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, called the Peabody, and it`s said that the famous Peabody ducks own the hotel. They`re basically celebrities
treated like royalty. And hundreds of people gather every day to see a tradition that dates back 90 years, the March of the Peabody Ducks.
Why don`t you see this? Meet the Duckmaster, Mr. Kenon Walker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KENON WALKER, DUCKMASTER, THE PEABODY MEMPHIS: The duck march ceremony is exclusive to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. There was a general
manager back in 1933 that went on a duck hunting trip with a friend of his over in Arkansas. As a practical joke, they decided to bring back the live
duck decoys that they were using and set them loose inside that fountain. Now, when the general manager woke back up the next morning in a clear
mindset, I`m sure he probably got up and was like, when he got down here, there was a crowd of people standing around the fountain staring at these
ducks.
So that led to ducks living in the fountain. But then seven years later, a man by the name of Edward Pembroke just so happened that he was an animal
trainer in the Ringling Brothers in Barnum in Bailey Circus as a young man. And he was the one that came up with the idea of turning the ducks that`s
living in the fountain into a ceremony.
I have the honor and the pleasure of marching the ducks for you all this morning.
My title here at the Peabody Hotel is of the Duckmaster. A very unusual title to hold. It`s my job to train the team of ducks that we have here and
they have a $200,000 Duck Palace upstairs on the rooftop. There would be at least two to 300 people on the busy days. The number of people doing the
duck march, we`re talking into the thousand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, if I may direct your attention to the elevators having just left their penthouse on the roof to join you.
Looking good. Ladies and gentlemen, the march of the world-famous Peabody Ducks.
WALKER: All the way to the fountain, I need everybody to use the steps. Come on, duckies. Let`s do it. Everybody say good morning, Duckies.
CROWD: Good morning, Duckies:
WALKER: Fantastic. Everybody use those steps for me. Everybody up the steps. Looking good there`s. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Great job, Duckies.
To know you`re providing an experience that`s unlike any other, it`s a privilege. I don`t consider it a job. I feel like it`s no pun intended, but
it`s a calling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: We love puns, and they should always be intended. All right. I told a taradiddle I will quack a joke today. What do ducks wear to fancy
parties? A duck-sedo.
All right. We had some great your word Wednesday submissions. Vocabulary words are off the charts. Awesome. Thanks to @Mikayla04264. Taradiddle, a
noun meaning a petty lie.
And thanks to Pocono Mountain East High School for overmorrow, meaning the day after tomorrow. Well done.
Shoutout time now, we`re headed to Massachusetts to Tyngsborough, home of the Griffins, Greater Lowell Technical High School, you rock. We hope you
and everyone watching around the world have a wonderful one.
I`m Coy Wire, and we are CNN 10.
END
