A VICTORIAN coalmine fire was so big it took agencies responsible for firefighters' health time to adjust to the scale of their task, the state's fire chief says.
Fire Service Commissioner Craig Lapsley has dubbed health monitoring at the Hazelwood mine fire a success but said the response would have to be better at future fires.
The monitoring system was based on previous, smaller fires and agencies improved over the 45 days the fire burned, Mr Lapsley said.
"We had to be agile in the way that we did it," Mr Lapsley told an inquiry into the blaze on Friday.
"The system of work needs to be embedded to ensure that we can deal with not only 30 or 40 firefighters, but the shifts of 200, 300, 400 if it was to happen again."
Fourteen firefighters were hospitalised with carbon monoxide poisoning while battling the blaze.
The inquiry heard the monitoring project was the largest of its kind in the world, with 7000 people being assessed for the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning and 23 WorkCover claims filed.
"I'd say (it was) a very successful operation," Mr Lapsley said.
The inquiry heard the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning at mine fires was known following a 2006 fire, but when the blaze started on February 9 the Country Fire Authority was yet to implement a 2010 draft operating procedure.
Mr Lapsley said it should have been signed off and published earlier.
He was also pressed on why firefighters were not given breathing apparatuses after it was agreed they should be compulsory when entering the mine.
Mr Lapsley said protocols were set around the use of breathing apparatuses in consultation with firefighters who did their own "dynamic risk assessment".
"It was found to be totally impractical to actually wear a breathing apparatus all the time," Mr Lapsley said.
He was also questioned on the possibility of the fire starting within the mine, which he said he could not rule out but was unlikely.
"The probability of having a fire start within the mine from some vehicle movement, mechanical device or other things, you couldn't actually take away," Mr Lapsley said, adding there was no evidence of fires starting from any way other than ember attacks.
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