Hazelwood fire inquiry makes 18 recommendations to prevent repeat disaster

THE Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry Board has made 18 recommendations to prevent a similar disaster from ever happening again.

Morwell open cut coal fire Photo by Chris Morley

THE Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry Board has made 18 recommendations to prevent a similar disaster from ever happening again.

The damning 446-page report into the February 9 fire — which burnt for 45 days leaving nearby Morwell shrouded in smoke and ash for weeks — was tabled in State Parliament today.

Twelve recommendations were directed towards the state with another six aimed at mine owners GDF Suez.

The report criticised the effectiveness of the state response and a lack of coordination between agencies while slamming GDF Suez as being inadequately prepared to manage the fire.

The board estimated the total cost of the fire at more than $100 million.

The report said the Traralgon Incident Control Centre was put under significant pressure dealing with fire activity over a large part of Gippsland due to a strategic decision not to set up the base Incident Control Centre at nearby Yarram.

That pressure was compounded by the slow delivery of requested additional firefighting resources.

The board recommended using integrated incident management teams in future to improve the efficiency of communication and resources between emergency services and operators of essential industry providers.

Communication responses overall did not reflect international best practice for crisis communication with communication from GDF Suez also noticeably absent during the fire.

Communication was described as largely one-way with information being transmitted but not received or understood by intended recipients.

Empathy was also lacking, particularly from some government spokespeople.

GDF Suez should also have liaised more closely with the CFA to understand the likely threat to the mine.

The report found all but one of GDF Suez staff nominated as an Emergency Commander by the Emergency Response Plan were out of Morwell on a weekend break or holiday on February 9 despite the company recognising the need for fire preparedness planning two days earlier.

There was no evidence that anyone within the mine notified the CFA of the fires by calling 000.

Resources within the mine were deemed insufficient to prevent the spread of fire.

With smoke and ash produced by the fire resulting in a number of distressing adverse health effects for Morwell residents, the EPA was described as ill-equipped to respond rapidly to the crisis.

The report found the use of low cost, highly mobile equipment could have allowed monitoring to have started earlier in the critical first week when the highest air pollution concentrations were likely to have affected the community.

Advice from the chief health officer Rosemary Lester for vulnerable residents to temporarily relocate was also provided too late, the report found.

The advice was poorly explained and perceived as divisive.

In future, the state was urged to equip itself to undertake rapid air quality monitoring anyway in Victoria — including data on minute particulate matter 2.5, carbon monoxide and ozone — and ensure this data is used to inform decision-making within 24-hours of any incident occurring.

The state was urged to continue the long-term health study into the effects of prolonged exposure to smoke and ash on residents for at least 20 years.