Police investigate suspicious fire in stands at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne's south-east

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A fire at the Caulfield racecourse in Melbourne has gutted the Norman Robinson grandstand. The extent of the damage is being assessed and police say it is suspicious.

Transcript

00:00There's a huge amount of damage after a fire broke out here at the Caulfield Racecourse

00:08at around 6.20 this morning.

00:11It sparked a huge response from firefighters, 17 fire trucks and more than 70 firefighters

00:17came straight down to put out the blaze.

00:20Luckily, that was all under control in under an hour.

00:23By 7.10 it was all under control, but the extent of the damage is now being realised

00:29as quite significant.

00:31As you mentioned, the Norman Robinson Grandstand was where the fire started.

00:35The authorities arrived to see the flames coming out there and that grandstand was built

00:42in 1960 and it's a very historic area.

00:46Inside it is a bar that has plenty of significance for the Victorian racing community.

00:52So more than just physical damage for sure for the Victorians who come down here quite

00:58regularly.

00:59Tomorrow was meant to be the first race of the season here at the Caulfield Racecourse.

01:04There are some plans to maybe move that to Mornington Peninsula, to a racecourse there.

01:10But there's also been some water damage as well to the restaurants below after the sprinklers

01:15went off this morning.

01:16We spoke with the Fire Rescue Victoria incident controller earlier this morning.

01:21Here's what he had to say.

01:23We're starting to reduce our footprint.

01:25We'll be at a point now.

01:26We'll get the structural engineers to have a look and the health officer to have a look

01:29because there's been a bit of water damage with some of the restaurants underneath.

01:32And we'll be at a point where we'll look to hand over to Victoria Police to complete their

01:37investigation.

01:38So as far as the community is concerned, there's no issues for them.

01:41There was a bit of smoke this morning.

01:42We sent out an advice message to the community, let them know there was smoke in the area.

01:46There is a lot of residents around here, but thankfully the wind wasn't significant so

01:50it didn't really impact them as much.

01:52Well Gemma, luckily there were no injuries and everyone was safely evacuated at the time

01:57of the fire.

01:58Now it's in the hands of Victoria Police who have set up a crime scene and they're deeming

02:02the fire as suspicious.

02:04So an investigation is now underway to try and determine what caused this very significant

02:09blaze.

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