Those who lived and worked near the massive 2017 fire at the recycling facility in Melbourne’s north told a court how it left their lungs burning and the ground covered in smouldering ash.
A recycling centre fire that covered two Melbourne suburbs in acrid smoke and thick ash was so toxic that it pumped dangerous particles into the atmosphere at more than 15 times the level considered hazardous to humans.at Coolaroo in the city’s north told the County Court on Wednesday that the fire fallout had left their lungs burning, eyes stinging and – days later – the ground covered in still-smouldering ash.
Kirwan told the court that as she went outside to prepare to evacuate and check on an elderly neighbour, she was confronted by a horror scene of large plumes of smoke billowing over her home from the nearby recycling plant.“It was awful. I’d never seen anything like it before. I hated it. It was like Armageddon – it was horrible,” she told the court.
Kirwan told the court that when she returned home – two days after the fire began – her front yard was covered in ash and the outside of her home in soot.“When we returned, there was a lot of ash … There was also a lot of ash on the front lawn, and that was, like, thick. It was almost like foam. I don’t know what it was … and it was still smouldering,” she said.
The court heard that at the time of the fire, a hazardous reading was 250 micrograms per cubic metre. FSV also tested the levels inside rooms at the Coolaroo Hotel, which had an average reading of 1000 micrograms per cubic metre.EPA officials told the court they found large piles of rubbish around the site, including one with an ordinary chair placed atop – a crude lookout tower for workers before the fire.
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