By Brendan Rees
Firefighters tackled a large blaze at a retirement village in Cranbourne East on Wednesday, 15 March.
Forty firefighters and 10 fire vehicles from Dandenong, Hallam, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Berwick and Clyde were called to the scene which erupted in a single-storey brick recreational centre shortly after 1pm.
The centre was a section of the Blue Hills Retirement Village on Berwick-Cranbourne Road.
The fire, which sent smoke billowing into the sky, caused the roof of the building to collapse. The fire was however brought under control at 2.45pm.
CFA operations officer Paul Summons said the cause was yet to be determined and a fire investigator was examining the scene. “We believe that it’s started in the roof area,” he said.
He said the recreation centre, which housed a swimming pool, workshop, gym and child care room, had been completely gutted.
“Unfortunately it’s a total loss. It’s good our crews were able to prevent the spread of fire to any exposures. Nobody from the community was hurt.”
He said it was lucky only one person was in the building at the time that was safely evacuated.
“A passer-by alerted that person by banging on the window and pointing out that there was a fire on the roof. They were unaware initially.”
“We were quite lucky. A couple of hours later and we would’ve had dozens and dozens of kids there for swimming lessons,” he said, adding “We had one minor injury to one of our firefighters.”
“We were able to save one of the pet turtles inside,” Mr Summons said.
He said there was no threat to neighbouring properties: “It was a successful firefight. It was a fantastic effort by out career firefighters and our volunteers.”
Crews remained on scene to mop up and monitor hotspots until 10pm.
CFA issued a message at the time for local residents, advising them to shut doors and windows and avoid breathing the heavy smoke.
Police and Ambulance also attended and a nearby section of Berwick-Cranbourne Road was closed to traffic.
