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Three employees at a company charged in connection to a massive factory blaze in Melbourne will be forced to give evidence, a court has been told.
The fire ripped through a factory containing hazardous chemicals at Campbellfield in April 2019.
It is being investigated by Coroner Darren Bracken, along with another fire that started in August 2018 at a factory that was allegedly stockpiling dangerous waste at Tottenham.
During a directions hearing on Wednesday MR Bracken asked WorkSafe lawyer Anna Robertson about how the criminal cases around the fires were proceeding.
“Three employees of Bradbury [Industrial Services] are going to be subject to compulsory examination,” Ms Robertson told the coroner.
That company is charged in relation to the Campbellfield blaze in the city’s north where two workers were injured in explosions.
A compulsory examination hearing means the employees will be forced to give evidence in front of a magistrate.
A contested hearing is also expected in May in relation to that fire, Ms Robertson said.
Another man, Graham Leslie White, has been charged in relation to the Tottenham fire which sent plumes of noxious smoke across Melbourne.
He is facing multiple charges from WorkSafe and the Environment Protection Authority in relation to the fire, Ms Robertson said.
“I’m conscious in the background of other prosecutions that the inquests themselves might not be able to commence for a little while yet,” Mr Bracken said.
It came as firefighters said they wanted a joint inquest into the blazes and wanted two additional fires to be looked into.
Lawyer for Fire Rescue Victoria Catherine Dunlop told the coroner there were commonalities with both the Campbellfield and Tottenham blazes.
“It’s appropriate to look from a more holistic picture rather than two separate isolated incidents,” Ms Dunlop said.
She also wanted fires at an Altona North waste treatment facility and one at separate Campbellfield site that happened in 2020 added to the inquest.
While not as significant as the other blazes they could help see how reforms had been working since the previous fires, Ms Dunlop said.
The coroner will resume the hearing at a later date.
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