Gungahlin Joint Emergency Services Centre has temporarily closed due to lead and diesel contamination.
This is the second first responders base to become unusable this month. Staff relocated from City police station due to water damage in early February. As a result, Belconnen is now the only fully functional police station in north Canberra.
On Wednesday morning, during refurbishment, contractors found lead-containing dust on top of ceiling tiles in the roof, and diesel particulates in the engine bay storage areas in the western end of the facility, the ACT Government’s Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS) said.
JACS notified WorkSafe ACT at once. All the workers were out of the building by 2pm, Emergency Services Agency Commissioner Wayne Phillips said.
ACT Policing has established a mobile front office at Gungahlin Police Station following the closure of the Gungahlin Joint Emergency Services Centre. The facility, open from 8am to 8pm, will provide basic front office police services, such as allowing members of the public to speak to police, report crimes, and attend for bail requirements. Justice of the Peace services will start at the site in the coming days. This facility will be in place until such time as police are able to return to Gungahlin Police Station. Police will continue to patrol Gungahlin to minimise response times.
Gungahlin State Emergency Service has moved to Belconnen. ACT Fire and Rescue have relocated to West Belconnen. Ambulance services are working out of both West Belconnen and Dickson. The Rural Fire Service (RFS) will remain on site, working from a demountable.
Only when the build-up of diesel particulates has been cleared will ESA workers return.
“No emergency service worker in the ESA will move back into that building until it is completely safe to do so,” Commissioner Phillips said.
The Commissioner said he was confident the relocation would not affect response times. Fire trucks are positioned in optimal areas; ambulance services are mobile; there is little fire danger needing the RFS’s attention; and the SES can respond anytime to storms, he said.
Other fire stations (such as the West Belconnen Fire Station) would not be overcrowded; they were built to take extra trucks and firefighters.
It would take a week to receive test results, Commissioner Phillips said. “We’re going to wait for the investigation and the source of that before we make the next decisions.”
The community and nearby residents are completely safe from contamination, Commissioner Phillips said.
The United Firefighters Union (UFU) of Australia, ACT Branch, called for an investigation into how the contamination problem at JESC was created and remained undetected. Canberra Liberals MLA James Milligan, Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services, echoed that call for a thorough investigation.
UFU ACT branch secretary Greg McConville wrote to WorkSafe ACT urging the investigation, with a view to prosecution.
“Emergency services personnel working, and community members visiting the JESC for decades may have been exposed to deadly lead dust and diesel particulates on a daily basis,” Mr McConville said. “Firefighters are exposed to carcinogens at incidents throughout their careers, and it verges on culpability that they have been further expose to carcinogens and neurotoxins at a fire station where exposure is avoidable.
“This extended exposure may have severely, permanently, and potentially fatally impacted the health of emergency services personnel who’ve worked at the JESC over several years.”
There have been no reports of illness or sickness as a result of contamination, Commissioner Phillips said. However, he has recommended that staff contact their health professionals.
“I’m always concerned about any worker being exposed to carcinogens,” he said. “I’m a 32-year firefighter who has a big passion about reducing the exposure… It’s one of my priorities as the new commissioner.”
Commissioner Phillips agreed that there must be an investigation into the lead contamination.
The UFU said that workplace safety monitoring must be implemented at all emergency services facilities, and health monitoring for all personnel.
Commissioner Phillips said that he supported health monitoring; a voluntary and confidential health monitoring process would be implemented by the end of the year.
The ACT Government must also upgrade or replace out-of-date and potentially hazardous fire stations, Mr McConville said. Gungahlin JESC, opened in 1998, is the fourth newest fire station in the ACT, he noted; five stations are older, dating from the 1960s. In his opinion, they are not fit for purpose, and might also be contaminated.
The Canberra Liberals also believe the JESC must be replaced, and the building made fit for purpose.
“The JESC has been overcrowded for years with staff working out of a demountable in the car park, and now they find dangerous lead dust,” Mr Milligan said. “It is simply not good enough.”
Commissioner Phillips said that he would consider testing other facilities for contamination; however, it was not a priority at the moment.
The Justice Directorate had failed firefighters with respect to managing facilities, Mr McConville concluded. This includes delays in building new fire stations at Acton and Molonglo, he said. He wants the ACT Government to provide funding directly to the fire service to build and manage these facilities itself.
The Canberra Liberals claimed that Mick Gentleman, ACT Minister for Fire and Emergency Services / Police and Crime Prevention, had failed frontline workers.
“This entire débâcle with our police and emergency services building not being ‘fit for purpose’ has all happened under the Minister’s watch, and he has continued to drag his heels on this matter,” Mr Milligan said.
“The Canberra Liberals have continually called on the Labor-Greens government to address the ongoing issues of poor resourcing for our police and emergency services, who are stretched very thin and not provided the resources they need to do their jobs.
“It is clear the Minister and Labor-Greens government have no will and no desire to provide adequate resources to our hardworking frontline workers, and they should ashamed.”
Commissioner Phillips, however, said that the ACT Government had given him “the resources and people to ensure that the people of Canberra are protected”. He was satisfied with the level of funding.
