Refinery safe after leak

CFA’s second call out to Viva facility this week

A GAS leak at Corio’s Viva refinery sparked an emergency response yesterday.

Fire crews were called to the Refinery Rd plant after reports of a gas leak, about 5.30am.

CFA operations officer Pat Geary said the scene was ruled safe about 8.30am, with paramedics and police also placed on standby on scene as a “precautionary measure”.

“It was a small leak which wasn’t able to be isolated. Viva controlled it by controlling their processes and put the plant into sleep mode,” Mr Geary said.

“It’s now a maintenance problem as it’s about 3-4m off the ground, so they’ve got to use scaffolding to fix the leak.

“We had three vehicles from Corio attend with probably eight firefighters as well as three operational staff.

“In reserve we had Lara and Geelong City at the standby area just outside the refinery and Geelong West step up to Corio, so we had quite a few resources on scene.”

It is the second time CFA has been called to the Corio facility this week after fire crews responding to a gasoline leak about 9.30pm on Monday.

In September, the Australian Workers’ Union labelled Viva Energy’s safety record as among the worst of all Victorian major hazard facilities and threatens their viability.

The extent of the problems were revealed in documents obtained by the Geelong Advertiser, which uncovered WorkSafe’s intervention at the site.

The dossier showed WorkSafe inspectors visited Viva sites on 56 days during the 2016-17 financial year.

The regulator also issued 26 improvement notices, with several being slapped on Viva after it failed to notify WorkSafe of incidents.

A WorkSafe spokesman Peter Flaherty said it was aware of the incident and was making inquiries.