SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: For a week and a half, the town of Morwell in Victoria has been shrouded in acrid black smoke as a fire in the adjacent coal mine has burned. Protecting the coal mine and the power station it feeds is a top priority for the state. 200 firefighters are still battling a three kilometre firefront, while locals and the Victorian Fire Commissioner have criticised the lack of firefighting equipment at the mine. Madeleine Morris reports.

MADELEINE MORRIS, REPORTER: Today was no ordinary day for the students at Commercial Road Primary School in Morwell.

TEACHER: This is what's going to happen today, guys. I know some of you might be very excited about this. It's a bit like an adventure for us.

MADELEINE MORRIS: The entire school is being temporarily relocated to a nearby town to escape the black smoke that's been hanging over Morwell for nearly two weeks.

STUDENT: Well, it gets into your nose and it starts making your eyes water a bit and you start coughing and stuff.

MADELEINE MORRIS: So you'd be glad to get out and get some fresh air?

STUDENT II: Yeah.

STUDENT: Yeah.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Principal Justine Smyth got word just yesterday that her 250 students were being bussed out.

JUSTINE SMYTH, PRINCIPAL, COMMERCIAL ROAD PRIMARY SCHOOL: The smoke in the air is too strong and affecting children and staff and I think it's just better for the children to be out of that. They can play outside. At this stage they're saying until next Friday and I guess it's a play - see how we go sort of thing. We don't know how long that open cut's going to burn for and how long the weather's going to affect us.

MADELEINE MORRIS: This is why these children are being evacuated out of Morwell. 11 days ago a grass fire jumped into the Morwell coal mine at the centre of Victoria's main source of electricity in the Latrobe Valley.

NEWSREADER (Feb. 9): The blazes stretched from Goongerah in the far east of the state to Buchan and the Latrobe Valley where the town of Morwell and the Hazelwood Power Station are under threat.

MADELEINE MORRIS: The combination of gusty winds and the massive supply of fuel in the mine meant the fire took hold with a vengeance.

LUKE VAN DER MEULEN, CFMEU STATE MINING PRESIDENT: What we're looking at is the Hazelwood mine fire and the main area, where the fire is, is in the old disused mine that hasn't been used for more than 30 years.

MADELEINE MORRIS: The CFMEU's office has a prime view of the burning mine, a daily pungent reminder to the union's state mining president of a fire he says never should have happened.

LUKE VAN DER MEULEN: Well what I understand is a lot of the firefighting infrastructure that was there was taken away to be either scrapped or reused in the working part of the mine, and really, the - it's a mine that's been abandoned. It should have been left with firefighting equipment in place until it was all covered with dirt.

MADELEINE MORRIS: But in a high-fire risk zone like here, a disused part of the mine, an abandoned mine, is still a danger because of course the coal is still all there.

LUKE VAN DER MEULEN: Oh, I think, look, the regulators and the companies that have been running these mines have let this community down and I think the infrastructure should have always been there, all the coal should have been covered with dirt.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Could this fire have been avoided?

LUKE VAN DER MEULEN: I think it's totally preventable fire.

MADELEINE MORRIS: This black smoke has been blowing over Morwell on and off for 10 days now. It smells of coal, there are particles of ash that catch in your throat. It is quite frankly disgusting to breathe. I've been here for two hours and already I feel sick. And the question is: did it have to get this bad and how much is the electricity company to blame?

CFA VOLUNTEER: It's total confusion. There was no plan. Even getting into the security gates was difficult.

MADELEINE MORRIS: This CFA volunteer was one of the hundreds of firefighters sent to the mine and power station when the fire first took hold. He was shocked by what he saw and heard from the mine workers when he arrived. He's speaking to us on condition of anonymity because the CFA has banned its firefighters from speaking to the media.

CFA VOLUNTEER: Two of them said that several million dollars worth of fire prevention gear, the heavy-duty sprinklers, the kind of sprinklers that you see in field irrigation had been pulled out and sold for scrap metal. One of them said that the company should have covered the face in clay at least 10 years ago, that the new company had promised to do it and then said it was too expensive. There were a lot of very angry, very disgruntled people out there, but they were all scared for their jobs.

MADELEINE MORRIS: 7.30 asked the mine's owners, GDF Suez, to respond to the criticism. The company said no-one was available for an interview, but in an email it said claims it had scrapped pipes to the disused area of the mine where the fire first took hold were completely untrue. It also said it had covered over large areas of the disused mine with soil and grass.

However, Victoria's Fire Commissioner has told 7.30 a lack of pipes, irrigation sprinklers and other firefighting equipment at the mine has been a big problem.

CRAIG LAPSLEY, VICTORIA FIRE SERVICES COMMISSIONER: There's no doubt that if we had infrastructure in place, the fire service, the one which would fight the fire, would be more effective.

MADELEINE MORRIS: And with it, the town of Morwell might not be covered in smoke and carbon monoxide.

CRAIG LAPSLEY: That could be the case. And I think in hindsight there's some lessons to learn about what we've got to do with these major infrastructure in moving forward and I think that's something that we'll lead and we'll certainly make comments about once we get this fire out.

MADELEINE MORRIS: But there have been two fires here in the past eight years alone. Why are they putting infrastructure in now? This is too late.

CRAIG LAPSLEY: That could be an argument, without a doubt. The fact that we've needed to work with the company to get infrastructure put in means that that's been an inhibiting factor.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Luke Van Der Meulen of the CFMEU points the finger of blame beyond the mine's owners.

LUKE VAN DER MEULEN: The community shouldn't be experiencing this fire right now. We believe it's the fault of the regulators and whoever's running the mine at different times - they should have rehabilitated these mines, and until they were fully rehabilitated, they should have had proper firefighting infrastructure to fight fires.

MADELEINE MORRIS: In Morwell, concern is growing over how long it's going to take before the fire, still running at three kilometres long, will be extinguished. Local GPs say respiratory problems are spiking.

WILLIAM GHATTAS, MORWELL HEALTHCARE CENTRE: At least four or five times the normal number of patients who is presented with short breath, dizziness, irritation in the eye, more precipitated asthma for the asthmatic patient, which is - some of them didn't experience the asthma for a while. But since this lovely stuff that we had currently, we start to get more patient presented with the precipitated asthma due to the irritation of their throat.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Clean air and an adventure was on offer for some of Morwell's youngest residents today, a welcome relief for them and their parents. But with air quality still variable and a fire predicted to burn for weeks, the town can't be sure when it will be able to breathe easy again.

SARAH FERGUSON: Madeleine Morris there.

And you can read the full statement from the mine owner, GDF Suez.