Toxic smoke over Melbourne: the 1991 Coode Island Fire
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- Опубліковано 22 чер 2024
- Today boasting the largest port in Australia, Melbourne has a long history of maritime trade and industry. One of these is chemical import and storage - most notably on Coode Island in West Melbourne.
In this video, we look at the fateful day in August 1991 when it all went up in smoke and threatened thousands of people with a pall of black, toxic smoke.
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MORE INFORMATION
'The Yarra Changes', Royal Historical Society of Victoria: www.historyvictoria.org.au/on...
My website: philipmallis.com
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SOURCES
philam.github.io/videonotes/c...
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I acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which this video was filmed, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Boonwurrung people. I pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and their extensive and continuing connection to land, water and country.
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I remember this incident well. Can't believe it happened over 30 years ago
I still can't believe it's not butter.
Another brilliant video, Phillip, thank you. As someone who grew up in Melbourne from the mid-70’s and left for California on Boxing Day, 1991, it is wonderful to receive detailed reminders of the events of those days, albeit a less pleasant one in this case. History is fascinating, but when it occurred during one’s lifetime, it is more so, especially with informed detail and superb presentation you provide. I, and many many viewers, truly appreciate it. Thank you, again!
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you!
My brother in-law was part of the Port Emergency Service and was on the 2nd appliance on scene. The other brother in-law was in the MFB (now FRV) and also attended this disastrous fire.
I was working as a site boilermaker in an EWP on a factory wall almost next door when it blew up! Heard a series of loud whumps and flipped up my head shield and then saw the lids of the storage tanks lifting up into the air on bloody great fireballs. Looked down at the still glowing arc welder in my hand and thought “naaah, too far away to be me…” then more whumps and a giant column of black smoke led to me doing the whole “I’m outta here thing” … under my protest my boss (AKA my Old Man) sent me back there the next day… WHUMP! lifted head shield to see the same. bloody thing again…. And that at the age of 21, was my second major industrial explosion. There’s been two more since then lol
Wow you were very close to the action! Glad you made it out in one piece
Great video Phillip. I also remember this event well. I was in Year 12 at school in Malvern, in the middle of a English Literature class when we were locked down.
The next few hours were like the script from a John Hughes movie!
- A teacher who was prone to dramatics, announcing killer toxic smoke and we might die if we went outside.
- The dark subject matter in the text we were studying
- Collective nerves about our upcoming final VCE exams
- General angst of teenagers in the early Grunge era
I recall we all sat around on the floor pondering if this really was the End of the World and "getting real" with each other, pouring out our (predominately) white, middle-class souls to each other until the All Clear was given to go home 😆 Guess we must have looked like a pack of wankers 🤣
Fun times....
+1 looking forward to a future video on the 1998 Gas Crisis after the Longford explosion.
I've got photos of the fire from our backyard in West Footscray. Great video. Thanks
I was on High School work experience camp that day, working at Aussie Disposals on Elizabeth Street. I remember getting knocked off early on the day.
The thing I remember most was having THE worst blood nose on the day after, that seemed to last forever and just wouldn't stop. Anyhow, we went back to Mortlake on Friday at the end of camp but had to come back to Arctic Park for our junior footy team trip on the Saturday to watch North v Geelong. On the way back near the Olympic Park my nose started bleeding again and didn't stop until we were near Cressy. Looking back, I'm convinced the smoke had something to do with those nosebleeds.
Remember this like it was yesterday. I was a 21y/o plumber working on the Herald and Weekly Times building in Westgate Park, just over 600m away from the explosion. We stood out on a landing overlooking the Yarra, watching the explosions and the thick black smoke. We could actually taste the chemicals in the air but weren't allowed to go home until the union official and shop steward approved it. I've often wondered whether there would be any long-term effects from the smoke from that day, so far so good.
Melbourne has quite a few industrial fires in recent memory. The one in Campbellfield, the recent one in Southbank. I remember signing a lease to move to Footscray the day that the 2018 West Footscray fire happened and thinking it was a bad omen.
I will never forget seeing a photo of a V/Line train passing Tottenham and seeing the black smoke from that in the background... that was a bad one too, I think if memory serves me it was a recycling factory and that's what was burning. The Campbellfield one was from memory, used tyres.
@@aidanthomas2510 There have beem multiple in , SKM recycling facility , the tire fire, and the chemical waste facility that uncovvered a heap of other sites accross Melbourne. They were linked to Lemon Springs illegal chemical waste dump in Regional Victoria.
This brings back memories, I was in high school in Moonee Ponds at the time and we were recommended to stay indoors and only venture out for our lunch orders
Remember this well, and love the history aspect you bring to it. I was working at Smorgon Steel in Laverton at the time and lived in West Footscray. As I remember the wind was from the west and blew the smoke to the eastern suburbs of Melbourne
I remember we were sent home early from school as the smoke was drifting our way. We couldnt use public transport, our parents were called to pick us up, there was around 1000 kids at my school and its junior school down the road - I have no idea how they managed to contact all those parents so fast but they did. I still clearly remember that day.
I remember that day. I was working at the Sands and McDougall building in Spencer St. West Melbourne. We could see Coode Island. As shown in the video, it was pretty bad. We couldn't leave the building. Thanks to the wind, we didn't have to stay back. I think I left around five. It was very dramatic while it lasted.
ATO??
@@andrewmcgalliard8987 Social Security
I certainly remember this incident but as a teenager didn't really care all that much being a resident of oakliegh out of sight out of mind
The history is absolutely fascinating as always Phil you nailed can't wait for the next one 🙂
I was at Footscray Primary Geelong Rd when this all went down! I can only remember being told by my teacher to stay indoors. Holy moly, can't believe that was over 30 years ago.
Remember this well, even though it was over thirty years ago. Thank you for putting this together. Very informative and well done.
Brilliant work Philip.
During the west gate tunnel excavation soil contaminated with PFAS levels over 1000 times the EPA threshold was discovered and kept under a tarpaulin for several years before being buried in a landfill😦
A couple of years back, they were talking about the the West Gate Tunnel on the radio. I didn't catch the whole segment, but Eddie McGuire was saying that they were dealing with some contaminated soil from a chemical fire years ago. I'd been curious about it ever since. I was about 1 at the time of the fire, this is the first time I've heard of it.
I definitely remember the debate about where that was going to be dumped, at one point it was going to come to Werribee which is where I live, I think they were going to dump it in the track reservations along the RRL corridor from what I could tell. But the most controversial plan was definitely the Maddingley coal mine one.
@@rus0004 that segment is still here on UA-cam, they were talking about the cost of it all and from memory talked to a PFAS expert. But yes, this was the chemical fire they think the foam from fighting it caused the PFAS that ended up in that soil.
@@aidanthomas2510 Yes, that's the one. I'll have to look it up. Thank you.
very smart man great job editing, thanks for sharing this with us all
Another thing I didn't know!
I wonder if you can talk about the 1998 gas explosion that left people around Melbourne without gas...?
Thanks! And yes the Longford disaster is definitely on the list of future videos
It’s so weird to come home from work only to see work all over UA-cam when I got home 😊
Great topic as it is something I'd forgotten about!
I was in grade 1, in East Brighton and we has to stay indoors for hours
Great work Philip. I remeber this incident. For some reason I think I was not at work (near the CBD) at the time and watched on TV the events unfold.
I'm guessing the huge amounts of foam that was used was PFAS based and has heavily polluted the entire area. Not forgetting the first responders who had to work in the stuff for sometimes days.
Yes, and caused problems when the West Gate Tunnel construction started.
Thanks for the video, I remember seeing huge clouds of black smoke caused by this from the playground of the Graham St. Primary School.
Thank you Philip.
It was a scary day I was at home with my young baby when the warnings came. We lived in a house in the middle of a huge park which felt very isolated at that moment. I placed wet towels on all the window sills and the door and hoped for the best….
Remember this well! I had my camera, zoom lens and b/w film and made my way right down to the banks of the Maribyrnong river, directly across from the blaze. Captured the whole thing and took my film to one of the Footscray Newspapers and said, you might want to develop this film! They developed my film and told me there was nothing of interest on the roll as they had better shots. They gave me the negs and I left, not realising that they had kept three frames, the buggers!!
Remember this day,l was the building caretaker at the county court building in Willam St in the city,the chief judges office got me to shut the air conditioning off
I lived in Geelong at the time and worked in Collins St. Had to sit back at work until quite late when the trains restarted.
I think the PFAS from the foam used on the Coode Island fire was the reason for the contamination of soil that has delayed the Westgate Tunnel project.
I remember this incident vividly, I was driving down Oliver`s Hill in Frankston in a work vehicle (Ford panel van) when not only did I see the smoke plume coming from Melbourne I could smell and taste it as well. For a few minutes I felt faint and nauseous. The papers and radio ran the news for weeks after.
It was definitely toxic then if you felt nauseous
I can't remember the exact timeline, but it was towards the end of the first day of this major event that a senior Metropolitan Fire Brigade officer and spokesperson said, "It's all over bar the shouting", or something similar.
He lived to rue that comment for many years after, as the very next day, it broke out and took off again.
I remember how clear the smoke was from Laverton as I headed home from school
Remember being in my office in Collins St and although the main part of Coode island line of sight was blocked by other skyscrapers saw a huge fireball and black cloud billow out from the side of a building slightly blocking the view as one of the storage tanks blew out.
Great video
I lived in Maidstone at the time, we were not allow to use hot water tap, so we have to have cold shower and only 4mins showering. It was Autumn season, a bit cold. I could only last cold 2mins
I still remember seeing the smoke the next day and mentioning to my colleagues that i think it's happened again.
123 liked mate, hopefully the safety regulations have lifted many times over and adhered to since this disaster.
I vaguely remember this.. Had to goog-maps the site...
Another very interesting bit of history. I'm surprised it hasn't had conspiracy followers, considering it caused the shutdown of the "trade centre".
As humans we do tend to need so many chemicals for one reason or another. So storage will always present risky issues and dangerous situations. We can only hope we've learnt enough from it so similar things don't happen again.
I remember, it was a company called Union Transport that blew up. I saw it from South Melbourne and the noise was tremendous. Don’t believe Union Transport operates now, if they do it would be under a different name now.🇦🇺
You should talk about the dfo crash
Very interesting and all these years later I end up working across the road
good show. the picture at 1:47 looks like the building which appears in other photos of the fishermans bend airfield which was not on coode island.
Thank you! The caption for that particular photo states that it is at Coode Island, although sometimes information can be wrong of course: nla.gov.au/nla.obj-144690265/view
@@philipmallis , had a look at the reference. the writing below gives away the name alright. however, on a facebook post to do with the history of port melbourne, that building is in the centre of where the later hard-paved runways got built at fishermans bend. there were close-up and distant shots of it. i think you mentioned that part of what is now called fishermans bend was called coode island. curious machine, that plane. i cant see a propellor. it sort of looks like a seaplane.
I remember this. I was living in Kensignton at the time and my mum rang to say I should put towels at the bottom of the doors to keep the smoke out.
I remember seeing that on the news
I remember seen it go up as I was waiting at the gate of the Government aircraft factory
Phillip would you do a simmiler video on the Longford disaster as well
Probably! Others have suggested this too, and it's definitely on the list
Very similar to the Boral LPG gas explosions in Sydney a year earlier.
Watched this from the top floor of the Rialto building (was working at the ABS at the time)
Looks like the smoke came pretty close to the Rialto judging by that picture, so you would have had a pretty good view of it
I remember driving over the Westgate bridge when the fire on Coode island occurred…
You would have had a great view of it
@@aidanthomas2510 I did… I remember seeing an explosion blowing off the top of an oil tank…
l took photos of coode Island fire l was on the other side of the river and l took photos of fire balls.
They may have dodged a bullet with those fumes but we know know some of that fire fighting foam is very bad…wonder if they used the same type that was used at Amberley that has caused environmental issues
Yes and at the ex-CFA college at Fiskville.