The United Firefighters Union (UFU) has said that equipment failures and a shortage of appliances put their members’ health at risk at the huge fire in Derrimut on July 10. Mechanical faults and resource issues documented by the union and its members not only put firefighters at risk, but also allowed the chemical fire to spread faster.
On the day, there was a delay in the arrival of a firefighting appliance, the ‘teleboom’, which attacks fires from above. Other pieces of equipment broke down on site, including some that potentially threatened to increase the exposure of firefighters to the toxic chemicals. One firefighter at the scene, Dion Robinson, reported symptoms of chemical exposure, including a sore throat, fatigue and nosebleeds.
In a radio interview on the ABC this week, Fire Rescue Commissioner Gavin Freeman told Raf Epstein he was proud of Fire Rescue Victoria’s maintenance crew. When questioned about whether any firefighters suffered ill effects, he acknowledged that he had had reports of some suffering headaches and rashes.
The Age published UFU claims that 40 per cent of the vehicles called to the Derrimut fire - about a quarter of Fire Rescue Victoria’s entire fleet - are past their 15-year lifespan. The union estimates that nearly two-thirds of vehicles will be past their use-by date within a year. The UFU has had concerns with the age and availability of appliances for some time. On June 25 the union reported that an 18 year old truck broke down at a busy intersection in Canterbury. On July 10, just one day before the Derrimut blaze, the union issued a media release that firefighters had reported that there were no spare trucks in the entire state.
Read more: Firefighters plagued by equipment failure at Derrimut industrial blaze The Age. UFU’s Fire Crisis page