00:00Fire and Rescue NSW got alerted approximately about 11 minutes past seven last night to the
00:06Police Citizens Youth Club building. Initial reports, I think we had about 60 calls, which
00:12is quite a large volume initially, and the officer in charge made a great call from the
00:17initial, from actually the office in Denison Street. He could see the glow and he upped
00:21our response level to include extra resources.
00:25And how many firefighters came, how many appliances did you use?
00:31For the whole duration of the incident, because we do rotate crews, we had approximately about
00:3911 appliances here, and they include special appliances like from Shell Harbour Hazmat,
00:46which looks after some environmental issues, and you have special appliances out of Wollongong,
00:52the ladder platform which was utilised, and a specialist rescue vehicle. So all up we would
00:58have had approximately somewhere between around the 40 to 50 mark of firefighters.
01:03And how far had the fire spread? Where did it start?
01:08The fire appears to mainly be in the middle section of the building, which is mainly around
01:14the mezzanine level, which was full of old gymnasium equipment. And because it's disused,
01:21there's not much else in the premises to actually add to the fuel load and make it intensify.
01:29Okay, so it was not too difficult, I guess, to contain? Or was it still difficult given the location and
01:37everything?
01:37The difficulty was that the structural integrity of the building got collapsed quite early. So that
01:43meant we couldn't conduct what we call offensive firefighting. We had to go defensive and pretty
01:48much fight the fire from outside the building rather than going inside to knock it down. So that
01:54changes our tactics until we get to a point where we feel it's safe, and then we can actually change
02:00our tactics in line with the conditions. Were there concerns there was anyone inside?
02:05There was reports that there may have been someone inside, but we did a quick search of the building
02:11initially, but then due to the collapsing of the roof, we withdrew our firefighter because
02:16firefighter safety is our number one concern. But at this stage, it appears there was no one in the building.
02:23So the building has been, I guess, sweeps since there's no remains there?
02:28The building has been, had a sweep, as you say, to confirm that yes, we haven't found anyone inside.
02:36So it started on the mezzanine level. Any indication of how the blaze started? Could it have been a squatter
02:41or teams coming past?
02:43At the moment, the cause and determination is under current investigation by Fire Rescue NSW Investigation Unit and also the
02:54Police Forensic Services Group.
02:56So there's no indication of how it started?
02:59At this stage, no. They're currently here at the moment, undertaking them inquiries and investigations to determine if they can
03:06work out what the cause was.
03:08Would it have had to require some sort of human involvement, seeing as there's kind of no, I guess, you
03:16know, there's no, there's not a restaurant, there's no gas cookers or anything like that, or lithium-ion batteries or
03:20anything like that there?
03:22Logic would dictate that, but we don't know that someone hasn't been, had something on charge here, because I believe
03:28there was still power to the building.
03:30So we can't discount that at this stage. So at this moment, I would say nothing like that has been
03:36ruled out.
03:37Okay. And in terms of there was heaps of people here, was there any concern for the fire spreading to
03:43other buildings or, as you mentioned before, risks to the creek because of the...?
03:47So there was concern. So there was a number of residents evacuated, which would have been to the western side
03:54of the building.
03:54And we're also looking at the wind direction, the smoke plume. So there were some people evacuated from that side.
04:03And there were other concerns, obviously, is with the firefighting to run off into the environment.
04:07And that's where Hazmat, Hazard Materials Unit, sorry, they're here to actually do some testing, some sampling of the air,
04:15if the run off's getting into the creek here, to just do some sampling.
04:20And then we'll take measures to mitigate or minimise that, them risks.
04:25And what's happening today? Obviously, the site's been handed over to police, but fire investigations here, there's a dog. What's
04:31going on today?
04:31So today, what is happening is we're looking at, as I said before, the cause. So they look for the
04:38area of origin, and then we look for the cause.
04:41And that is a joint effort between the Police Forensic Services Group, as well as Fire and Rescue New South
04:47Wales investigation units here.
04:49We do have our canine here, which can test for different ignitable liquids. So whether they actually use the canine,
04:58not sure.
04:59They also have what we use, a rapid pilot aircraft, a drone. So that's gone in and sort of, that's
05:05part of their investigation as well, to take pictures and work out sort of which plan, how they're going to
05:10actually undertake their inquiries, what resources they're going to use.
05:15How long do you think the investigation will take? Do you think the cause could be determined today?
05:20I'm not 100% sure. It could go on for another couple of hours. It could go on for an
05:26hour.
05:27And there were no injuries yesterday, were there? To the best of my knowledge, there was no injuries.
05:31Okay.
05:31Okay.
05:32Okay.
05:33Okay.
05:36Okay.
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