A farmer who lives next to the Fiskville firefighter training site says the Country Fire Authority bullied him after he objected to toxic black smoke blowing across his property.
Neville Callow owns a 39-hectare property next to the Fiskville training facility, which was closed in March after a cancer cluster was discovered among firefighters who lived and trained there.
On Monday Mr Callow told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry that the training facility's burning pad was a little more than 100 metres from his boundary.
"In the 12 years I've owned this property, my family and anyone who has visited has been exposed to black smoke on a regular basis," he said.
But things looked set to improve when he agreed to sell part of the farm to the CFA to create a buffer of land between the burn pad and the Callows' property.
However, when the deal fell through and the farmer continued his objections about the CFA's training exercises, relations soured, he says.
"Looking back over the years, I have been bullied and harassed by CFA management," said Mr Callow.
The farmer says he does not feel the CFA have taken his concerns about air pollution or soil and water contamination seriously.
"They basically said 'we the CFA have been here for 20 years. We have 800 volunteers. We can do what we like. You are nothing but a nuisance'," Mr Callow told the inquiry.
Earlier on Monday a former supervisor at Fiskville said firefighters used to bury or burn drums of chemicals at the training site without knowing what was inside them.
Kenneth Lee said as a burning pad operator he would receive semi-trailer truckloads of 40-litre drums containing fuel or unidentified chemicals that were then used for training exercises.
Mr Lee also said he never received training from CFA on how to handle chemicals.
The next public hearing will be held on June 15.
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