Serious concerns about contamination at the CFA’s training base at Fiskville were first raised decades ago, but ignored by the authority, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.
Diane Potter, the widow of former CFA chief officer Brian Potter, said the CFA had been told in 1991 about chemical contamination at the training centre near Ballan.
The inquiry is investigating chemical contamination at the site, cancers linked to Fiskville, and who was responsible for the saga.
Ms Potter said a doctor warned the CFA in 1991 about the risks at the centre and that those people living and working there should be informed.
“The hardest part for me is to find out, when the story went to the media, that the CFA in 1991 had been told to warn people who lived at Fiskville that they have been exposed to dangerous chemicals,” she said.
“To think that somewhere, the powers that be had hidden that information. It may not have saved my beautiful man or our other friends who were living there who have either died or been very sick, but no one had the right to withhold that information.”
Mr Potter died last year after a long battle with cancer, which his family and firefighters believe was caused by working and living at Fiskville.
She claimed the CFA did not want to meet with Mr Potter because it was waiting for him to die.
In January the Labor government released areport from Monash University that showed high cancer rates among people who had worked and trained at Fiskville.
The government also closed the site because of contamination in March.
Mr Potter lived at the site for several years and was pivotal in exposing its dark history while battling serious illness.
His wife explained how Mr Potter had written to authorities in the late 70s over concerns about the chemicals being used at the site after reading reports from the US about chemical danger.
He never received a letter back but archives have revealed a letter was to be sent back saying everything was fine. Handwritten on the top were the words “be careful”.
She said her husband did not want the issue to “blow up”, that he just wanted to talk to someone about the dangers and safety for other firefighters but no one at the CFA would listen.
The Potter family moved to Fiskville in 1978 and Ms Potter recalled running a bath for her kids on the first day there and the water being brown.
“It turns out that is the normal colour for water at Fiskville,” Ms Potter said.
“We did have a water tank at the old house which came through the kitchen so we thought we had safe water to drink. I did often question what was in it, with Brian assuring me it was OK.
But I would still boil it for drinking, and now one wonders – what were the floaties?”
Two claims for workplace compensation were rejected by the CFA and now another claim from Ms Potter requires her to provide a statutory declaration that they were in a relationship when he died.
“I just want to see some compassion shown to people affected,” Ms Potter said.
The inquiry opened with testimony from Monash University expert Professor Malcolm Sim who spoke to his report about the rates of cancer among more than 600 people who were at the site between 1971 and 1999.
His report was first released in January and found there was a cancer cluster at the CFA training base.
