CFA’s Fiskville training college shut down after dangerous chemical found in water supply

LATEST: THE two most senior WorkSafe staff have resigned in the wake of the Fiskville debacle, after Premier Daniel Andrews said they had lost his confidence.

Fiskville today, after the realease of a damning report into the CFA Training facilty.

THE two most senior WorkSafe staff have resigned in the wake of the Fiskville debacle, after Premier Daniel Andrews said they had lost his confidence.

Mr Andrews said WorkSafe’s chief executive Denise Cosgrove and Chairperson David Krasnostein had failed to ensure the safety of staff at the CFA training base at Fiskville, which was shut down on Monday night after contaminated water was detected.

“They cannot explain how they got this wrong, in fact they cannot guarantee us that they even tested the water,” he said.

“On that basis, our government has lost confidence in Worksafe, and the CEO.”

Mr Andrews said the government had acted swiftly and decisively over the debacle at Fiskville.

“I will not be lied to, and I will not accept incompetence,” he said.

“There are no short cuts when it comes to keeping the people who keep us safe, out of harm’s way.”

Ms Garrett said there had been a litany of problems at the site and the latest health scare involved dangerous chemicals found in drinking water.

Finance Minister Robin Scott said the changes at WorkSafe would see the current executive director of the Insurance Business Unit at WorkSafe, Clare Amies, appointed acting chief executive.

Chairman of the Transport Accident Commission and current board member of Worksafe Victoria, John Walter, will be appointed acting Chair.

“An assurance of safety was given. The Fiskville findings prove otherwise,” Mr Scott said.

A Fiskville site tour by a parliamentary committee that is holding an inquiry into the CFA training facility has been postponed after the latest health concern.

The Environment and Natural Resources Committee was due to tour the college tomorrow, but a statement from the committee has been released saying it would not go ahead.

“The CFA has advised that due to circumstances that have arisen at the college it is not available for inspection by the Committee at this time,” the statement says.

“The Committee will reschedule the site inspection as soon as practicable.”

Earlier today, Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett said that authorities were testing the water supply in the area after residue from a banned firefighting foam may have infiltrated the CFA site’s drinking water.

She said authorities needed to work out whether the source of the contamination was located at the CFA base through a cracked pipe, or somewhere else.

She said the water that was found to be contaminated was piped to the base.

“One would assume (contamination is from the base) given its history but clearly we need to rule out every possible option,” she told 3AW radio.

The CFA college has been shut down indefinitely.

About 60 Fiskville staff were told on last night of the immediate closure of the site, dogged by contamination woes for three years.

Ms Garrett told the Herald Sun she could not see how Fiskville would reopen, despite CFA claims the suspension was only precautionary.

“This is a very serious and distressing matter. We will get to the bottom of what’s happened,” Ms Garrett said.

United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall said the water contamination should have been detected earlier.

He said the alarm was raised about water at the centre by firefighters training at Fiskville as early as 2012.

He said this new revelation would leave many firefighters worrying about their long-term health and cause uncertainty for the staff who have worked there.

The CFA will conduct further tests of all water on the site — including from drinking taps and shower heads — which may also be contaminated.

Tanks used in firefighting training, where the residue was found last week, had not previously been sampled by Fiskville’s testing regimen because they had been fed by mains water and were presumed “clean”.

CFA chief executive Michael Wooten said he believed PFOS foam was no longer used at Fiskville, but it may have seeped into mains water pipes running under the training pad.

“The only prudent course of action is to suspend all operations until further testing is completed ... However, the strong advice is that any risk to the health of people at Fiskville is likely to be very low,” he said.

The development follows claims in 2011 that the site could be responsible for cancers among volunteer and career firefighters and their families.

Mr Andrews said the resignations were “not about politics” and was about the safety of workers.

“The site will not reopen until it can be demonstrated that it is safe,” he said.

“I don’t know whether we will ever be able to demonstrate the site is safe.”

Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett said she would be surprised if the Fiskville site was ever reopened.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: ‘WE HEARD A WHOOMPH ... A DRUM FLEW IN THE AIR’

CFA’S DIRTY SECRET AT FISKVILLE

OPINION: FISKVILLE’S DEADLY LEGACY

‘I WAS HEALTHY BEFORE FISKVILLE’

The Herald Sun revealed former CFA chief officer Brian Potter’s fears that toxic contamination from his days as manager at Fiskville had caused his multiple cancers.

Fiskville had been a dumping ground for tanker loads of highly toxic chemicals used in training burns as a cheap alternative to fuel. It was burnt and stored in drums, many of which were buried on the grounds.

In June 2012, it was revealed the contamination legacy continued and training water was giving firefighters rashes and gastro intestinal illnesses.

The MFB stopped sending its fireys to Fiskville for training.

Dams which fed hot fire training hoses contained the toxic sludge that had never been cleaned up despite decades of warnings to CFA management.

Mr Potter died last year. His widow, Diane, said efforts to bring justice for families of sick and dying firefighters revealed something much bigger than he’d anticipated.

“He and all those others who have tried to expose Fiskville have kept hitting hurdles — if he was alive he’d be devastated to know the problems hadn’t been fixed.”

The CFA stopped using the dam water and switched to tanks fed by town water after the June 2012 revelations.

“At the moment we can’t see how it infiltrated the mains water supply but that’s what we’re looking for answers to,” Mr Wooten said.

He expected toxicology results would be back within two weeks.

PFOS has proven links to cardio vascular disease, testicular and kidney cancer and is associated with reproductive problems.

A firefighter described it last night as the “Agent Orange of firefighting”.

Firefighting authorities stopped using PFOS in 2008 after a worldwide crackdown because of the health problems.

The Labor Government announced a Parliamentary Inquiry into Fiskville last year and is due to start hearings in May.

Mr Marshall described the Fiskville saga as “one of greatest OHS failures by any government or organisation”.

He said since the 2011 revelations the Napthine Government refused to acknowledge and assist Fiskville firefighters who contracted cancer, including Mr Potter.

“And they supported the use of Fiskville to train career and volunteer firefighters despite the CFA and government knowing that scientific reports showed that the water being used in training was dangerously contaminated.”

HOW THE SCANDAL UNFOLDED

DECEMBER 6, 2011 - Herald Sun reveals suspected cancer cluster among people exposed to toxic chemicals at Fiskville

DECEMBER 21, 2011 - Secret CFA report shows it knew about health danger but concealed it for 20 years

JULY 6, 2012 - Tests show dams at Lake Fiskville breached acceptable water standards more than 50 times in 12 years

JULY 12, 2012 - CFA confesses staff and volunteers were exposed to toxic chemicals but not warned, with 250 identified as at serious risk

OCTOBER 24, 2012 - Switch to mains water at Fiskville following concerns over dam water DECEMBER 24, 2012 - Monash University study undertaken to match death register with chemical exposure at Fiskville

JANUARY 23, 2013 - EPA issues two clean-up notices for Fiskville

FEBRUARY 12, 2014 - Former CFA chief officer and Fiskville whistleblower Brian Potter dies

DECEMBER 9, 2014 - Parliamentary inquiry into toxic CFA Fiskville site announced

FEBRUARY 9, 2015 - CFA chief Mick Bourke resigns weeks before a parliamentary inquiry begins

- with Michelle Ainsworth