The widow of a senior CFA firefighter who died of cancer said a new study had vindicated his claim of a link between the brigade’s Fiskville Training Centre and firefighters falling ill.
Diane Potter, the widow of former fire chief and whistleblower Brian Potter, said the study proved everything her husband said was true.
Mr Potter, who fought cancer for more than 14 years until he died last year, said he believed the illness was caused by his years at Fiskville, near Ballan.
“The authorities have been in denial. There has been a lot of hiding,” Mrs Potter said.
“Brian would never have covered up anything like this.”
The Monash University study found the training centre contributed to high rates of cancer and 16 deaths.
It found that firefighters who worked at Fiskville between 1971 and 1999 were linked to higher-than-expected rates of skin, testicular and brain cancer.
Of 606 people who worked and trained there, 69 developed cancer.
Full-time staff, who were exposed to flammable chemicals, combustion, and recycled firewater, developed melanoma and testicular cancer at higher-than-expected rates.
Those employed part-time showed elevated rates of brain cancer.
Mrs Potter said her husband was concerned about chemicals being burnt during training and even wrote a letter in 1991 asking for it be investigated.
She said a letter came back saying it was all clear but with a hand-written warning to “be careful”.
“It’s sad it’s gone on as long as it has.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said the tragic consequences were now apparent.
“We must learn the lessons of Fiskville because this can’t be allowed to happen again,” he said.
United Firefighters Union spokesman and firefighter Mick Tisbury said the recent findings vindicated the union’s and Mr Potter’s concerns over Fiskville.
“When Brian Potter died, the former government still clung to the fiction that Fiskville was safe and refused to recognise his cancers as work-related or to support him and his family,” he said.
Mr Tisbury said the union was now waiting on results from a Worksafe investigation which began in November 2012 and was meant to finish within three months.
“That investigation will determine if there are grounds to prosecute the CFA for exposing firefighters to dangerous chemicals and highly toxic water during their training at Fiskville,” he said.
The union has now called on those denying any risk to resign immediately.
No one from the CFA would speak to Star Weekly about the study, but in a blog post written last week, chief executive Mick Bourke pointed out the Andrews government had declared the risks associated with the site were now very low because of remediation work.
“Also, there’s ongoing monitoring of those risks, and that vigilance is critically important,” he wrote.
