Ringing out a death warning
One by one, members of the elite ambulance and fire brigade rescue units were told the news they had never expected or wanted to hear.
They had been exposed to asbestos diseases – the silent killer almost impossible to detect – during training exercises at Holsworthy army barracks.
These are the men who are trained to go where others won't dare in the event of disaster.
"I just couldn't believe it. You do this dangerous work for a living but you never expect something like this to get you," a rescuer who asked not to be named said.
"The bosses got on the phone and told everyone who had spent time crawling around Holsworthy in the past two years that they might come down with this illness over the next 20 years."
As a mark of their courage, the cream of the fire brigade and ambulance service are powering through their ordeal.
There have been no reports of anyone taking sick leave. They are going about their work, going home to their families and hoping for the best.
There is anger in the ranks for two reasons: many officers who had not set foot on the site for up to a year were not told about the problem until their superiors called out of the blue last week.
They also want to know why tests were not conducted at the site two years ago, before the state's most qualified rescuers began crawling around the rubble.
The potential victims are not your average firefighters and paramedics. They are members of elite units such as Urban Service and Rescue (USAR), set up to deal with mass casualties in the event of a September 11-type bombing on the streets of Sydney.
Spare a thought for the close-knit Special Casualty Access Team of paramedics attached to the ambulance service.
Out of its 40 members, 15 were told last week that they had been listed as the most-at-risk "Category A" patients.
Before it turned out to be riddled with asbestos, the training site at Holsworthy was the ideal setting for rescue crews to practise.
The site was specially designed to resemble a city landscape torn apart by a natural disaster such as an earthquake or the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
The emergency workers have no choice but to wait. Asbestos diseases such as the fatal mesothelioma – cancer of the lung lining – can take 30 years to develop.
"The bosses will say it's under control, but you know what? They have no idea how it will turn out," one of the potential victims said.
They had been exposed to asbestos diseases – the silent killer almost impossible to detect – during training exercises at Holsworthy army barracks.
These are the men who are trained to go where others won't dare in the event of disaster.
"I just couldn't believe it. You do this dangerous work for a living but you never expect something like this to get you," a rescuer who asked not to be named said.
"The bosses got on the phone and told everyone who had spent time crawling around Holsworthy in the past two years that they might come down with this illness over the next 20 years."
As a mark of their courage, the cream of the fire brigade and ambulance service are powering through their ordeal.
There have been no reports of anyone taking sick leave. They are going about their work, going home to their families and hoping for the best.
There is anger in the ranks for two reasons: many officers who had not set foot on the site for up to a year were not told about the problem until their superiors called out of the blue last week.
They also want to know why tests were not conducted at the site two years ago, before the state's most qualified rescuers began crawling around the rubble.
The potential victims are not your average firefighters and paramedics. They are members of elite units such as Urban Service and Rescue (USAR), set up to deal with mass casualties in the event of a September 11-type bombing on the streets of Sydney.
Spare a thought for the close-knit Special Casualty Access Team of paramedics attached to the ambulance service.
Out of its 40 members, 15 were told last week that they had been listed as the most-at-risk "Category A" patients.
Before it turned out to be riddled with asbestos, the training site at Holsworthy was the ideal setting for rescue crews to practise.
The site was specially designed to resemble a city landscape torn apart by a natural disaster such as an earthquake or the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
The emergency workers have no choice but to wait. Asbestos diseases such as the fatal mesothelioma – cancer of the lung lining – can take 30 years to develop.
"The bosses will say it's under control, but you know what? They have no idea how it will turn out," one of the potential victims said.
posted by Chris Placitella | 10:30 AM
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