By KATH GANNAWAY
THERE’S no relief for Yarra Ranges MFB firefighter Mick Tisbury in the closure last week of the CFA’s Fiskville training facility.
There is, however, some sense of vindication.
Mr Tisbury, a firefighter for 27 years and on the executive of the United Firefighters’ Union, has been investigating and pushing for a thorough investigation into the use of toxic materials, and water contamination, at Fiskville for the past three years.
It’s been a harrowing experience that started with a media report in 2011 of a suspected cancer cluster in people who had trained at Fiskville.
Mr Tisbury said a series of reports and correspondence showed that it was not only people at the higher echelons of the CFA that knew of the health dangers, but in government.
The CFA, however, says it has acted on information and reports and has consistently cited reports that indicate that risks identified were “low and acceptable”.
CFA Chief Executive Officer, Mick Bourke, is on record as saying: “No stone has been left unturned and no expense spared in ensuring Fiskville is safe.”
If anyone is convinced, it’s certainly not Mr Tisbury – or, the Victorian Government.
Heads have already rolled with the sacking by the Labor Government of Worksafe Chairman, David Kransnostein, and its CEO, Denise Cosgrove, after they were unable to guarantee the water at Fiskville had been tested.
Worksafe had assured the government in December that the site was safe, prompting Premier Daniel Andrews to say he had lost confidence in them.
The closure of the training ground, where thousands of MFB firefighters and CFA volunteer and career fighters have done training over several decades, follows the announcement in December of a parliamentary inquiry into Fiskville.
Mr Tisbury, who was also an instructor at Fiskville on and off between 2001 and 2012, said he had been stonewalled at every turn in his efforts to get information, and/or action.
“For the past three years using freedom of information we’ve gained access to about 180,000 pages of reports and documents,” he said.
“What I am reading is horrendous, so you can imagine how bad the redacted comments are.”
Mr Tisbury says nobody was listening – and if they were, they weren’t telling anyone, including the firefighters.
“I was sick of asking MFB and CFA senior management and the politicians, got nowhere with Worksafe, went to the coroner and police … the coroner wouldn’t investigate because Worksafe weren’t investigating,” he said.
“I gave them (Worksafe) reams and reams of documents, including emails from CFA senior management and senior management at Fiskville in 2012, about testing water quality, asking about testing the water quality.”
He said the response was damning.
“Thankfully, now we have this parliamentary inquiry and these things are coming out,” he said.
Mr Tisbury says he has been subject to what firefighters call the ‘Fiskville bug’.
“Every time we went to Fiskville, we would come away with gastro-like symptoms and rashes; every time we would say the water smells a bit off, but the response was always ‘no … no … we have tested it to Class A standards.”
Fiskville has been closed; perhaps permanently.
But that’s only part of the story for Mr Tisbury.
He is pinning his hopes on the parliamentary inquiry to bring out the whole truth behind Fiskville.
“All I ever wanted, from the word go, was to get the truth,” he said.
“I want to know what we have been exposed to. I want to know who knew, and what they knew. I wanted the joint closed down, and I want the people who knew to be held to account.”
Mr Tisbury says the way will be open then for people who have been exposed to have regular health monitoring, so that any problems that develop can be caught early.
A CFA spokesman responded to the Mail’s inquiries with a statement saying the matters were being considered by the parliamentary inquiry into Fisville which was underway.
“CFA welcomes the inquiry and looks forward to making a submission,” he said.
The CFA has established a Fiskville Enquiry Hotline on 1800 628 616.
