Firefighters were on the scene and quickly extinguished the fire before it caused too much damage. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
An abandoned building in Kingston has suffered minor damage following a fire on Eyre Street today (18 August).
The fire at Newcastle House, formerly the ACT Weights and Measures building, began after midday and was quickly extinguished.
Fire and Rescue said that they had found a bin on fire against the building, spreading to the rest of the structure.
The fire was confirmed as suspicious, and firefighters said they would be coordinating with ACT police.
“When crews arrived, fire was found at the front door and had spread up into the ceiling level,” ACT Fire and Rescue Superintendent Jim Walsh said.
“The crews then commenced firefighting operations, running at lines of hose and forced entry into the front of the building, put the fire out and ensured that it hadn’t got into the roof space above.”
Ensuring a building has cooled down to a safe level is a challenge for Fire and Rescue. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
With firefighters on scene within four to five minutes, the fire was contained quickly, keeping damage minimal.
Mr Walsh said that buildings such as Newcastle House sometimes have squatters in them, which has to be taken into consideration.
“We’ve still got to make sure that there isn’t anyone in there, so we don’t have any people that are squatters or anyone else in there,” he said.
“We still have to search the building. We still don’t know if there’s power on. We don’t know what’s in the building, so there are complexities that come with abandoned buildings that we don’t get with occupied structures.”
The building is on a popular walking trail near Kingston, and firefighters directed pedestrian traffic away from the scene as they cleared the site at around 2 pm.
Though the fire was extinguished by early afternoon, firefighters stayed on scene to ensure that the building did not reignite.
Newcastle House is next to a popular recreation area. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
“Part of the recovery process is we’re making sure there isn’t any residual heat, so we’re trying to make sure that there will not be a re-ignition here. And in a building this age, we’re looking at things like asbestos sheeting,” Superintendent Walsh said.
Newcastle House was built in 1981 and is slated to be replaced by a community facility, with a tender for demolition opening later this year.
Bill Vojislav Stojanović China is where you’ll find electric carts with zero kilometres in a used… View