 Good afternoon, Craig Leslie and I'll introduce Chief Officer Rosemary Lister with me today and also the CEO of EPA, John Merritt. Just a bit of an introduction, it's important to reflect on where we are in Gippsland. The Hazelwood mine fire is one of the critical fires, but we should also remember that there's fires in East Gippsland. East Gippsland communities north of Orbost, Goonga in the Tabet area, have still got fires burning. Although the whole area is not burning, there's still a fire of significance. That CFA, DEPI, resources from New Zealand are still in the country assisting us to manage that fire. So I think that's important, although for the more world community, certainly the Hazelwood fire is the number one issue. Hazelwood fire as we know it is still burning. Yesterday, a day of significance with wind and temperature and firefighters have done a great job. Not a lot of game was yesterday, but we knew at the start of the day that may be the case, that the weather conditions would put pressure on the firefighting resources and how that would be achieved, but they've done a great job to hold it to where it is. We're still running 200 plus firefighters in every shift, committed to what they're doing in very difficult circumstances. MFB, CFA, South Australian Metropolitan, Fire Risk in New South Wales aren't down at the mine, but are in Maul and Trollman and other provincial cities providing support to CFA. Tasmania's here, airport firefighters out of Tullarine and East Sale are really important to understand the airport firefighters' effort with their large machines. And yesterday, we were challenged again where a fire came out of the mine. It was a grass fire that put significant pressure on the Hazelwood power station. It went within metres. An extremely good save by firefighters in intense time, a very significant save. It required closing down conveyor belts that were threatened by fire and had fire under them, which means that the power station was reduced by 20% of its power for a number of hours, but didn't have any impact on demand and supply across Victoria, but as a precautionary measure required the conveyor belts to be closed, which means the power generation station itself was reduced in its output. A very good firefight. That in itself meant there was a plan of strike teams being prepositioned because the risk was there. They knew the risk was likely and it was about when and where and how to deal with it. Aircraft resources, an old spoke to firefighters this morning that were there, a very difficult firefight and obviously a very tense time for our firefighters to make sure that the Hazelwood power station wasn't impacted nor on fire. So that's quite critical. Couple of things. This morning I've had the opportunity to visit the health assessment centre in Moor. Good attendance by people, community members, and I had the chance to talk to some of the community members. They're very pleased that they can get assessment of their level and get that understanding of what it means about some of the potential health impacts, what it means for them and their children. And I'd have to say that the mood, although very focused about their health, was a very good discussion, that they want to know what's happening to them. And that's obviously why I rose from you so critical. Ambulance Victoria, nursing staff that were there, great job. It's a great initiative, well attended, and we'll certainly look, we've spoken to Health this morning, about whether that needs to be expanded in some way, shape or form to make sure that we cater for any increased needs over the next week or weeks. So that's important. The other one, the respite centre that DHS Red Cross and La Trobe City have set up at the Maui Town Hall, another great initiative to allow people to get respite. One of the important things though that DHS want to have emphasised is the fact that there is a number to ring that an individual or family can book a meeting to discuss how they may be relocated for short periods of time away from Orwell. That number is 1-800-006-468. That allows a phone call to talk to an individual to book a time to have a meeting in Maui at the DHS office at Maui to talk about the circumstances and DHS will work through and support that individual or family of how and which they may best relocate for short periods of time away from Maui and the Valley. This will be particularly important for people that have not got family networks, have not got family connections and need further support, so that's really important. In saying so, I'll hand over to Rosemarie as the Chief Health Officer. Thanks Craig. I'm Rosemarie Vester, I'm the Chief Health Officer. Well, as you know, the situation now is continuing and we are continuing to have quite poor air quality in Orwell and that's been a very trying and distressing situation for everyone down here that's having to live through it and work through it. Our priority has been to work with the Environment Protection Authority very closely so that we're talking to them constantly about what the air monitoring is seeing and what that means for people's health. Our focus at the moment is to get the best possible information on the health effects to the people of Orwell so that you can be fully informed about what this means for you. Our priority at the moment is to concentrate on the short-term health effects that we know that the smoke can cause. We know that the fine particles in the smoke can get down into the lungs and that can cause short-term health effects like exacerbation of asthma, worsening of heart or other lung conditions and we know that the people who are most vulnerable to these effects are people with pre-existing heart and lung conditions, children, the elderly, smokers and pregnant women. So again, we'd ask you to hear the message that you need to stay out of the smoke if you can for most of the time. If you are able to take respite away from a smoky area if you're able to go and stay with a family member or friend out of the smoky area, that's ideal. If you don't have that sort of facility, you're able to attend the respite centre in Moe that the Fire Services Commissioner mentioned. You're able to attend there. The staff there are very welcoming. There are good facilities and lots of information for you. There is also the Health Assessment Centre, again which the Fire Services Commissioner mentioned, so that if you do have any concerns about your health, you can drop into the Health Assessment Centre. This is staffed by paramedics and nurses and they'll do some basic health assessment and screening for you, answer any of your questions and if you do need to be referred on to your GP or the hospital, they'll do that for you. We have seen the Health Assessment Centre well patronised and I think that that's been well received in terms of the advice and support that people are getting. I must stress though that of course although the smoke in the ash is very distressing and annoying for people to live through, what we are concerned about is basically what we can't see versus what we can see and the carbon monoxide is the thing which we would be really concerned about. The EPA is monitoring that constantly for us and we haven't seen levels rise to anywhere near a level where we would be concerned. Right to ask questions. What about people with, you're talking about people needing to leave the area. There are a lot of farms here, small communities that have animals, the animals are being impacted as well. What's your message to them? Well if people can't get out of the community, if they need to stay and work and obviously that's fine, people need to stay and work and do their livelihoods. If people such as farmers who obviously need to work outside, they can avail themselves of a P2 mask if they wish. It is important to note that P2 masks do have advantages and disadvantages so it's important to note that just putting on a mask is not a simple solution. The mask does need to have a close fit around the nose and mouth to make sure the particles don't get through. If it doesn't have that close fit well it won't filter out the particles. It is also important that anyone with a chronic heart or lung condition should speak to their doctor before they wear a mask because the mask can be quite hard to breathe through. So yes, if you do have to be outside, working outside, you can wear a mask. But even so, try and take a break inside in an air conditioned space for at least some part of the day. What sort of advice are you giving to pregnant women because Ambulance Victoria and police have told their staff if they're pregnant or trying to pull pregnant they shouldn't be working on this fire? We need to be clear about the distinction between people working on the fire at the fire front and the general more well community. For officers, be they Ambulance Victoria or firefighters at the fire front the real hazard there is the carbon monoxide and as you know workers there are constantly monitored, there's constant monitoring in place and that's because the carbon monoxide hazard is present there. For people in the general more well community as I mentioned before the carbon monoxide is being constantly monitored across the town and we haven't seen any levels of concern. So there's no need for pregnant women in the town of more well to be concerned about that. We've heard reports of one firefighter who said none of his crews were checked for carbon monoxide levels in or out of fighting the fire over these few days simply because they had too much on, it just hasn't happened. Is that a problem? Sounds like it could be a problem. Well that's a matter for the CFA and their occupational health and safety people and I can't comment on that. We've been told that there are plans in place for an evacuation should a formal instruction to evacuate should that be put in. Can you tell us how close the community is to that point of evacuation and at what point you will put those evacuation plans in place? That's right, there is an evacuation plan that's been prepared. We've talked about the triggers for an evacuation being the level of carbon monoxide and the triggers it's just it's not just a single spike in a level of carbon monoxide it's a spike over a period of time. So we need to look at a particular level over a particular period of exposure before we would need to think about evacuation. As I said we are constantly monitoring that and we haven't gone anywhere near what we would regard as a level to trigger a talk about evacuation. So is that the only trigger? Are there other factors in terms of choosing to evacuate or is that the only one? That's the only one. What about small particle pollution? We've been monitoring small particle pollution obviously very closely as well. We're continuing to talk to national and international experts on this to make sure that they're giving us or that we're getting the very best possible advice on this. So we're continuing to expand our thinking around this. But is there a trigger in there for small particle? No, there isn't. You said there's assistance for people to get out of town if they want to evacuate. $500 I believe it is available to them. But there's so many guidelines for if they haven't got a pension card or they haven't got a county card. So what about the people who have got businesses, people who are working who don't have that card? Well as we mentioned there's no, we don't believe there's an necessity to evacuate. We are saying to people if you can get out of town for a short period of time that's fine. The Department of Human Services as you mentioned is actually assessing people's hardship and if people want to give them a call and work through their individual circumstances then a Department of Human Services officer can work through and see if there's any assistance that they can provide. She said you were getting advice internationally about the small particles. Are you confident and can you guarantee people that there won't be any long-term health effects as a result of this in years to come? At this stage this in the scheme of things although it's been very distressing very distressing to live through at this stage this is still regarded as a short-term exposure so there is no evidence of any long-term health effects from this sort of smoke and ash for this type of short-term exposure. When is the Department of Supply available with masks? Sorry I didn't hear that question. Sorry is the Department of Supply available with masks so you can casual them to run by then? The masks are available through the health assessment centre through the community respite centre they've been distributed by local government and I believe they've been distributed by the ZVA so the masks are readily available however as I said people do need the correct instructions to use the mask we have written instructions on how to use the mask which have been given out at the assessment centres a pictorial representation of that is also on that. I'm actually saying that they're planning a protest and they've got hundreds of people that are planning this weekend to actually come forward they say that they haven't been informed well enough I mean this is two weeks on since the fire first started what would you say to that? Well the Department of Health in conjunction with the EPA has been putting out health advisories since the start of this incident so each day a health advisory about the level of bushfire smoke and the health messages that people need to take to protect their own health that's been going out every day and that's been going out through a variety of mechanisms through the media through paid media we've had newspaper advertisements paid radio advertisements online on our websites and now through printed material through the centres so we have been trying to get the message through to the community in as many accessible ways as possible the community meeting over a week ago said that as the fire will be out in a couple of weeks well just today they're still saying a couple of weeks so is there an actual instead of saying a couple of weeks a couple of weeks a couple of weeks which is the residents aren't happy with can you give them a date? That's a question for the process Can I ask you what is the definition of short term exposure to small particle pollution are we talking a couple of weeks or four weeks or six weeks what's your definition? We're going to take advice from national and international experts on and that's something we'll continue to work through What is your advice now? My advice now is that this is still in the realm of a short term exposure and there is no evidence that we have at this stage that there will be any increase in risk for long term health effects Isn't that the problem that there is no evidence of anything there's just a complete knowledge gap on the impact of fine particles some studies coming out of Europe that there is no such thing as a minimum exposure to PM 2.5 particles We've got looking at the readings the national advisory limit is 25 micrograms per cubic meter over a one day period We're far exceeding that There isn't a knowledge gap on this there isn't a complete knowledge gap on this We do know that exposure to fine particles can cause short term health effects What we do know is in the short term exposure that we're talking about it would be virtually impossible to tease out any slight increase in risk from all of the other exposures that we have every day So it's not possible to say yes there is an increase in risk from this short term exposure The evidence is really not there to distinguish it from any other from walking around a busy intersection intersection in Melbourne your exposure to particulates from that That's not very reassuring It's been an exposure going on for weeks now It's not quite the same as pushing the stock button there to walk You're also advising people to get out if they can Surely that's contradictory No, it's not contradictory The reason we're advising people to get out if they can is that we know that the particles in the smoke can cause short term health effects So that's why we're asking people to take a break from the smoke and take advantage of the respite centre What are the effects of our unborn babies? The primary concern we have about pregnant women and unborn babies is carbon monoxide because we know that that is harmful to developing brains and as I said we've been keeping a very close eye on the carbon monoxide and that has not been a level of concern which is good We've got 600 people coming to a rally on Sunday at 2 o'clock Can I call? Are you coming along to that? No, I wasn't intending to come along to that Have you made a visit to the mine? Are you going to go to Morwell? I've made a couple of visits to Morwell I've been through Morwell I met the counselling Morwell the other day I met the council staff I flew over the mine last week and had a look Have you walked in the streets of the main street and breathed in smoke? I have, I walked into the press conference that we had there last week I have no problem with being in Morwell I'm fortunate that I don't have a chronic disease so I'm not one of the at-risk people I've got no problem with being in Morwell I do understand that for people who've lived through this for now, for the two-week period that it is upsetting and distressing and has that potential to produce those short-term health effects What about long-term health effects? Well, I think we've I think we've answered that as I said, we're continuing to talk to national and international experts to make sure that we're getting the absolute best advice and the best advice out to the community on this How close, just on that, the carbon monoxide levels that'll determine whether you evacuate or not how far off are the current carbon monoxide levels from that trigger point? Well, at first days or time frame wise? Well, we're talking trigger levels so our first trigger level is 27 parts per million over an eight-hour period so it's not a single breeding of 27 it's a 27 over an eight-hour period so that would be our first level of discussion so we would ask the Environment Protection Authority to validate those readings and we would have a discussion about the need to evacuate Looking on the website just a few hours ago the level of carbon monoxide in Morwell was around three so that's about what you would see normally in a busy city street How would you go about evacuating 1000 people if you had to? Well, that's a matter for Victoria Police so I know that they have those plans in place Just a union rep has reported a paramedic, Victorian paramedic has had a stroke whilst attending these fires, are you aware of that? What's your response to that? I'm not aware of that and that would be something for the Individuals Owned Doctor to comment on and obviously the Occupational Health and Safety staff at did you say it was a fire fire? So the Occupational Health and Safety staff at Amylance Victoria should comment on that So those at the fire front what are the height and risks for them then? Well the thing that is concerning at the fire front is obviously the carbon monoxide so the firefighters are constantly monitored for that they wear breathing apparatus some of the time so it's the duty of the employer to make sure that those firefighters and the volunteers are protected and I know that the CFA put a lot of effort into that program and are having that externally reviewed Could you just clarify Rosemary if two weeks is short term exposure when is it going to be long term exposure a month, six weeks, eight weeks? Well that's what we're seeking further advice on so as I said we are seeking out national and international experts on this to give us some further advice now that we are into the third week Who are you consulting? Oh look I don't want to disclose details of that we'll seek that further advice and put our position Who are you getting in? Well we're seeking it we're in discussions it's a little I think it's a little hair splitting point Would you say that you're in uncharted waters here with this particular fire? Oh look it's very frustrating that it's gone on this long that's why I said why we have sought further advice so we'll just see what the advice tells us Can we just ask you about the actual fire? You said this morning that it could actually be a matter of months rather than weeks before it's out I think there's been a number of questions about the duration if you have a look at the success so far and I think that's important I say success we believe we're over 50% of the fire has been extinguished yesterday was a critical point in that in the sense it could have went backwards if you take that 12, 13 days into it and you project that out that's why we're saying it's 14 days ahead of us If everything goes right and I've had that reassessed by the outgoing incident trial of the assessment of his four days and he's just turned over and he said look I think it is 14 days we've had the chief author of CFA individually look at it he said it's about 10 days or a little better so somewhere in that period if we get the success rate of what we've had over the last period we'll get there however remember we've got weather conditions next week Wednesday and Thursday that bring in high winds temperatures that will challenge us that will challenge us it requires everything going right for us to achieve that 14 day window and obviously that's one of the key issues of YEPA and the chief health officer we stand together because it's ongoing and I think the other thing that's really important here we're working with the community we're not against the community we want the more community not to have this fire we want this fire out but it's challenging to do so on radio this morning he seemed to be backing down away from saying weeks he was saying months well it's got the potential to be that this is the best case scenario of 14 days we know if you talk to some of the old miners also there's been fires that have been underground for time so let's be realistic but our focus is to get the 14 days we're putting the resources in the work plans there to get a 14 day containment strategy around it and then it will probably rely on some really heavy reins to put out the other bits that are still underground how did you experience do you think the carbon monoxide levels could reach a point of evacuation I haven't seen yet any trigger that's put it into the triggers that would require evacuation I go back to last weekend the monitors the more south monitor which is the one that has had the highest carbon monoxide readings was peaked at 14 for a short period of time when I say short period of time it took a while to get to 14 peaked at 14 and went back down we were relying heavily on the work that's been validated by EPA and the Chief Health Officer that's been doing parts moving in over 8 hours so dosage and exposure is it and it goes right up to where it's 420 parts per minute for 10 minutes so if we had generated that level of carbon monoxide which we can't see in a science sense of how that would generate that but we've planned for those the question of evacuation yes we have got a plan in every major evacuation we do worst case planning this headquarters here has done that with big poll with incident controllers with the regional how would it be executed how would it work where's who's first where do they go all of those have been worked through and police that's their job and they do that very well and everything that we've ever seen before whether it be a bush fire in major structure fires in industrial fires in the same should the people of more will know about that evacuation plan you know God forbid it never happens but just so that if it does happen they know what to do that's a good consideration that may be something we do we've got to be careful we don't scare this community to the point let's get focused on the health issues and I think the health issues are front and center smoke carbon monoxide and ash they are the three key things we've been through the the smoke stuff EPA has been very strong on that early carbon monoxide I think we've tackled to the green quite well I think we now understand it well we understand the peaks how to manage it dosage and exposure I think the ash is certainly still an issue that is unresolved in something many people's minds of what it does and through rosemary and EPA are doing the best in understanding the analysis and obviously ongoing analysis so we've got to work with that and understand that the longer this dust this ash falls from the sky like snow in some areas I spoke to a resident this morning he said his backyard was like snow and he's saying I can live with it but it's getting frustrating and that's the other point about this is a frustration level we can go to science we can go to the medical bit but people are getting frustrated we clearly have engaged with the community have we done enough I'm sure there's someone out there saying no we haven't so we've got to keep at it what's going to happen with compensation for the people who've had to move out all their houses are all dirty or they can't work or they're losing business in the main street people are getting out of the mall what's going to happen to compensation we haven't got an answer to compensation at this point what I will say though is the first thing is important that if people need to be supported in leaving the mall that is for short term that they do ring the DHS number make an appointment and work through the circumstances and the reason we're doing that is so everyone has got a different set of circumstances and to give them $300 or $400 or $500 may not answer what that person needs I think that's really important that is going to be tailored to suit the needs of that individual or the family circumstances that's one point the second just before that the second one that's really important here is think about government services decision to close or relocate the children out of one school early child facilities have been relocated those that have managed by La Trobe City focus at the thing there I believe very strongly was children to get respite through their normal age their early children's program was a way to give them respite so go and be in a different place for those out of their normal in care back in their house at night where they live there isn't the indication to say that they are under risk of significant health issues they've got short term issues and need to be monitored that's in there we've now got to expand that one thing we have to do in Morwall and it started two days ago was all of Morwall it's been focused on South Morwall there's a broader community of Morwall that need the information and it was very clear by the City Council meeting on Monday night we have to treat all of Morwall not part of Morwall and that's been worked on now talking about how there might be one person out there that feels like you guys haven't done a good enough job but the indications are from this protest that there are actually about 600 people that want to attend and obviously you guys are doing the best that you can but there are a lot of disgruntled residents out there let's engage with them we shouldn't be hiding we shouldn't be scared of we should walk up and talk to the Morwall community that's our jobs let's talk to the Morwall community why are the my owners hiding they're not speaking my answer to that is very clearly this is an emergency run by fire I have the ultimate responsibility about ensuring that the control mechanism will put in place through CFA, MFB and others and the mind if they need to be here will bring them here more than happy to invite them here they have seen that it's an emergency and therefore the control agency takes the lead is the model which works if we need to get the mind involved and we have got them involved heavily in the mind doing the work they need to do to support the operation if they need to be here we can talk about that but we need to be clear are they going to value add to the health discussion and the emergency management discussion or is it something that can wait later in the product sense Craig with shutting down the power station very early on do you think have allowed firefighters to pursue the fire more aggressively I don't believe so in the sense that this is the disused part people have put to us about flooding the mind in flooding the mind takes out the pumps, takes out the infrastructure that we need to fight the fire so flooding the mind has been considered not the right option to progress where we are today we've looked at all sorts of options in the extinguishment strategy and it comes back that water and use of foam and other wedding agents is critical one thing I will say I am really concerned about the integrity of that mind one of the constant things we talk about is the safety of our firefighters and the fact is that as we put water in we potentially erode parts of it that's a key consideration for our people we do not want a landslide in that mind that there is fire truck or compromise the safety of the firefighter and you might shut the form let alone understand what that might do in infrastructure outside of the world there's people on site to advise us about the hydrology the geology of the site and the integrity of the site so it's a mechanism that's why the minds people are actually heavily involved in the operation under or in the open cup is to get that right and is that water that would cause that? Water would yeah but also think about as the coal burns it creates cavities so you've got issues of creating cavities or the burnt coal is compromising integrity as well as us applying water but what's different about this one because the Murray collection in 1975 was huge it doesn't seem the same now I don't know if you can answer that whether you are here but unfortunately I wasn't here I'm younger than you matey from that though 77 77, still a young person there is history here 1944 1933 1977, 1982 were major fires that were connected to bushfire bushfires and then we've had industrial fires there's some lessons to be learnt about that and obviously circumstances change but there's no doubt that the northern batter of this fire the northern batter of this mine is the key issue that puts all of the smoke ash and potential has it over what is more that issue is key in front and centre of the extinguishment strategy if it's in other parts of the mine it doesn't offer the same level of frustration to the town without a doubt thank you