Community
3 October, 2024
Concerns raised for lack of turbine fire safety
THE Opposition has called for a complete audit of wind farm after concern was raised there are no records of fire suppression equipment installed in turbines.
Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Richard Riordan said Energy Safe Victoria revealed last week it has no records of fire suppression equipment being installed in any of Victoria’s nearly 1500 Wind turbines.
He said there are another 900 turbines planned in the near future and regional Victorians, and under resourced CFA volunteers, have “been left in the dark as to which wind installations are going to have to be left to burn”.
“Regional fire safety should not be an optional extra,” he said.
“The Allan Government is fast tracking the wind industry in regional Victoria and its own safety regulators are asleep at the wheel.”
Mr Riordan said the majority of Victoria’s wind farm installations are located in some of the most fire prone areas in the state, with some future projects set to be placed in timber plantations.
He cited the recent wind turbine fire near Portland, in June this year, as being left to burn as no equipment was available to fight fires at such heights.
“A massive hot fiberglass and oil fire burning 200m above a Western Victorian grass plane is not a safe situation, and given catastrophic conditions could ignite fires for kilometres,” Mr Riordan said.
He said the risk for country Victorians was if a high intensity fire occurred during fire season – and while there have only been three turbine fires in Victoria to date, he warned the now ageing fleet of turbines could become more and more susceptible to fire as it wears and ages.
“It is inconceivable a responsible Government in the most fire prone state in Australia has not given its focus to this issue,” Mr Riordan said.
“The Allan Government must immediately undertake a full audit of all turbines, and report immediately to regional communities of the relevant risk.”
A Victorian Government spokesperson said wind turbine fires were “rare” and the owners and operators of windfarms must comply with strict energy safety laws and regulations.
“CFA volunteers have experience and procedures already in place to safely fight fires around this infrastructure,” the spokesperson said.
“They assess the risk before entering a site.
“Last year we strengthened Energy Safe Victoria’s powers to ensure operators comply with strict energy safety laws and regulations – this includes submitting detailed safety management plans to the regulator for approval.”
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