Page 4024 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 20 September 2011
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All available class foam supplies in the ACT were utilised with the support of Aviation Fire Fighting and suppliers, while additional supplies were sourced from interstate. At the peak of the fire, 11 Fire Brigade units, including hazmat and aerial fire-fighting vehicles, and over 50 personnel attended the scene.
ACT Policing provided road blocks to the Mitchell area, which was closed to all traffic, and all persons were evacuated. Police also advised people in adjacent areas that they may need to be evacuated depending on the direction and severity of the smoke plume. ACT Policing were part of the unified command team on the site at Mitchell.
Atmospheric monitoring commenced as part of the ACT Fire Brigade initial response. Hazmat crews monitored the atmosphere throughout the 48-hour firefight and continued to support the Environment Protection Authority thereafter.
A Fire and Rescue New South Wales hazmat response was also activated in accordance with cross-border arrangements. A hazmat crew responded by helicopter from Sydney, while two fire trucks were dispatched to Queanbeyan for use in responding with ACT Fire Brigade to daily business across the territory.
The EPA was on site early Friday morning. Its initial focus was to seek to prevent potential contaminants from entering the environment, particularly the stormwater system. Temporary earth bunding was quickly put in place along affected waterways.
Once the fire was contained, the EPA, in collaboration with their colleagues from New South Wales, set up a comprehensive sampling regime. Multiple samples were taken from soil, water, air and residue in and around Mitchell, through the likely affected waterways and right across the plume trail across the ACT and into parts of adjacent New South Wales. These samples have been transported to the New South Wales EPA’s environmental chemical analysis laboratory in Lidcombe. This facility is a specialist, expert and experienced facility and utilises internationally accredited analytical techniques.
Samples were tested against these standards for a number of factors, especially the presence of organic chemicals and heavy metals. These two categories of substances effectively cover the chemicals known to have been in the factory as well as likely products of the combustion and recombination of those chemicals.
The results for the factory site and the surrounding parts of Mitchell were received on Sunday evening and all were negative; that is, they contained no traces of chemical toxins. This is consistent with the fact that the fire burned at a very high temperature of over 1,000 degrees.
Of course the EPA is not suggesting that there was no pollution emanating from the fire. The area in and around the fire contains amounts of residue, ash and other remnants of fire-fighting material. However, the testing is conclusive that it poses no threat to human life or the environment.
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