Authorities have warned residents in Melbourne’s west exposed to a massive industrial blaze in Derrimut this week to monitor for headaches, after the toxic fire contaminated nearby waterways and may take weeks to clean up.
Firefighters who battled the blaze, Melbourne’s largest in six years, are also being monitored for adverse health effects after some presented to the hospital for observation and testing in the aftermath of the fire.
“Those firefighters have since been released, and they’re in care with our medical professionals at FRV for that ongoing monitoring,” said Josh Fischer, Fire Rescue Victoria’s deputy commissioner for community safety on Friday.
On Thursday, The Age revealed a bitter dispute had erupted in the midst of Wednesday’s fire at the chemical manufacturing plant, operated by ACB Group, after Melbourne Water initially delayed flushing a large toxic water slurry, created by the blaze and the efforts to douse it with chemical-laced firefighting foam, into drains and Cherry Creek.
An official from the water authority – who was later overruled – worried about environmental damage and clean-up costs. But that sparked anger among emergency responders on the scene, who worried about the health risks to themselves as huge toxic pools of water formed.
“Obviously, there’s a number of things that can occur as people are exposed to chemicals,” Fischer said on Friday.
“We’ll be monitoring for those, [including] obviously, headaches. People might have elevated heart rates, particularly with this type of strenuous activity: long duration, wearing breathing apparatus, hot environments, stressful conditions.
“This is a really dangerous environment for our people to be in.”
Fischer said authorities were still probing how the fire started, but thought it was non-suspicious. Firefighters are expected to remain at the scene for days, possibly weeks, as they work to access the site of the explosion. Wastewater and concerns about the building’s integrity have prevented crews from venturing into the smouldering wreck, leaving firefighters to monitor hotspots from above using drones.
“Once we can get access to the site, we will have a clearer picture, particularly of the area of origin,” Fischer said.
Authorities are also checking the atmosphere for dangerous gases emanating from the site.
Steve Lansdell, the Environmental Protection Authority of Victoria’s western metropolitan region manager, reiterated western Melbourne residents should not touch potentially affected waterways, including Cherry and Laverton creeks. He said if significant contamination was found, it could take months to dissipate.
“We’re not getting readings out there, but we’ll continue to monitor that for days to come,” he told reporters.
Scrutiny of the management of the chemical warehouse razed on Wednesday is mounting after WorkSafe and the EPA revealed on Thursday they inspected it a combined 33 times and issued nine compliance notices since a deadly explosion last October, which killed 44-year-old father Reece Martin. EPA last inspected the site it in December last year.
On Friday, Lansdell said the ACB Group factory didn’t require an EPA licence for the chemicals it stored, and it was instead a dangerous goods site regulated by Worksafe.
“Our focus was issuing a couple of regulatory notices focused on stormwater management and stormwater containment,” he said, adding the second notice required information about waste stored on the site. “At that time, they’d complied and weren’t storing and accepting any waste that needed EPA permission.”
FRV Deputy Commissioner Josh Fischer and EPA West Metro Manager Steve Lansdell on Friday.Credit: Wayne Taylor
When asked if that second notice indicated the ACB Group was storing chemicals that it wasn’t supposed to, Lansdell said: “It’s too early to say ... but that’s part of the ongoing investigation, and we’ll certainly be laser-focused on that.”
He added: “We haven’t seen any fish deaths or impacts on the bird life at the moment, which is great news, but ... often it can take 24 or 48 hours of this firewater going downstream [before it] can start to have those impacts.”
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