and possible cancer cluster.
Senior CFA staff appeared at the parliamentary inquiry for the first time and were criticised by some MPs for shirking responsibility for the use of toxic chemicals and contaminated water at Fiskville, west of Melbourne.
Victorian Labor MP Vicki Ward suggested to the CFA's workplace health and safety manager Jeff Green that the organisation breached Occupational Health and Safety regulations when it told WorkSafe in 2012 that only mains water was being used for training at Fiskville.
The recycled toxic water that had been used for decades at the site was still involved in training exercises as recently as 2012, Ms Ward said, therefore still being inhaled, swallowed or touched by firefighters.
That is significant because former CFA chief officer Brian Potter's airing in the media that he believed his many health problems were caused by Fiskville were first reported in late 2011.
Large numbers of people exposed to the area, including firefighters, residents both adult and children, as well as farm animals, have suffered health problems including cancer.
If there was a breach of OHS regulations it might not have been intentional, Mr Green said.
The long-time CFA employee questioned the claims of a cancer cluster due to chemicals and whether Fiskville should have been closed by Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley.
"The scientists and toxicologists were saying the site was safe," Mr Green told the inquiry.
"There is a difference between the safety and facts and the media's focus, and that might not be based on fact and science but emotion and people's perception."
However MPs pointed out to Mr Green that other studies found the water badly contaminated, including a 2012 ALS report he was unaware of that found unsafe carcinogen levels including arsenic, lead and mercury.
Former CFA and Environment Protection Authority chief executive Mick Bourke's appearance included numerous responses of "I don't know" or "I don't remember" about Fiskville.
His handling of the crisis was questioned because he appointed a former EPA colleague professor Robert Joy to investigate Fiskville.
While Prof Joy was scathing, his terms of inquiry were only from 1971 to 1999, before Mr Bourke worked at the CFA or EPA.
Mr Bourke and Mr Green's protests that they had to oversee 1300 facilities, not just the Fiskville "training ground", prompted Ms Ward to criticise their not taking responsibility.
"We keep hearing there is nothing to see here, I didn't know, it's not my responsibility but someone else's," she said.
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