Thread by @margaret_tmsinc

A 🧵

At approximately 1.30pm on the 23rd of December 2021 emergency services were called to a fire which had broken out on the 3rd and 4th levels of the Park Hotel, 701 Swanston Street, Carlton.
This isn’t about the fire.
This is about what happened afterwards.

Photos emerged of emergency vehicles in the street, taken from both inside and outside the Park Hotel. Police stood in the doorway and the occupants, approximately 34 refugees, were shuffled down to level one of the building, but no one was evacuated.

No one left the building except for one man who had suffered smoke inhalation. He was hospitalized.
The Evacuation Plan is quite clear that the Assembly Point was Lincoln Square Park. But no one was assembled there.

Why not? What’s the point of the Evacuation Plan if it’s not going to be followed?
Did Serco have a Fire Warden on duty? What did they do on the day?

This is for @comcare_gov_au and @WorkSafe_Vic to investigate.

Not only was no one evacuated. But extra people were invited in!

@VictoriaPolice Did @SercoGroup ask you to attend the #ParkHotel on Dec the 23rd? Why? Asking extra people into a building that is on fire is unprecedented! You could have said no. Vic Police, did you write a report about the incident? Did it note the assembly point was not used?

How did Serco staff know what to do without having actually participated in a Fire Drill at the Park Hotel? Have they received any evacuation training? Or perhaps they have had fire awareness training and participated in fire drills?

vic.gov.au/essential-safe…

There are legislative requirements for fire drills in any business. Public buildings - schools, court houses, hospitals etc don’t have staff participating without the children, patients, customers, also participating. Refugees have never had a fire drill in any detention centre.

When the Fire Brigade turned up, did the MFB ask Serco to evacuate the occupants? Or ask why the occupants weren’t fully evacuated to the Assembly Point? Did Serco refuse and confuse the MFB about who had ultimate authority in the building at the time of the fire? @vicemergency

@FireRescueVic - aka the fire brigade, these are the questions for you. Did Serco overrule you? Did you ask why there were people, let alone extra people, in a building that was on fire? Did you ask why they weren’t at the assembly point? Because either you asked or you didn’t.

Did slowness to evacuate directly lead to the hospitalization of a man due to smoke inhalation?
Hospitalisation is the criteria for a reportable incident under WHS law. Did @HomeAffairs report the incident to @Comcare? Did they mention not evacuating people to the Assembly Point?

According to @safeworkaus evacuation plans should be regularly updated. However, the evacuation plans currently displayed in the Park Hotel are still in the name of the former owner – @RydgesHotels

This suggests that the facility has not updated their fire evacuation plans since changing its primary function from that of a hotel to an immigration detention facility.

Something else for Comcare and perhaps the unions to look into! @unionsaustralia #ACTU

Regardless, it’s also obvious that apart from not practicing evacuation procedures with the occupants, the fire safety procedures aren’t made available in any other language than English.

Did #HomeAffairs actually develop site specific emergency procedures when they leased the Park Hotel for use as an Alternative Place of Detention? @karenandrewsmp - that’s your job to comply with the law.
safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/d…

So, who has broken the law?
The owner of the building?
Serco, who worked in the building?
Home Affairs, who leased the building and is the primary PCBU?

Section 19(2) is likely breached.

legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C…

And who will undertake an investigation, if any? Will they interview the occupants or request the MFB report and documentation relating to the incident from the Serco Fire Warden on duty, if indeed there was one?

Basic question. Was there a Fire Warden on duty? What did they do?

Or perhaps much like the fire at Yongah Hill in September 2018 where no one was evacuated for hours, it will all simply be swept under the rug with a determination that the WHS Act once again has inexplicably not been breached.

theguardian.com/australia-news…