Total Destruction

[Heath]

Early Wednesday morning last week I was stired from my sleep by the sound of sirens flying past my house, both police and fire brigade. I didn't bother going out to see what had happened because I was so tired. I found out what it was all about when I did get up and was listening to the radio. A local church hall was burnt to the ground. Luckily nobody was hurt and adjacent buildings were saved.

i know (or is it knew) this building quite qell. I walked past it every day on my way to and from work. It was quite old and was heritage listed. It was a weatherboard building, made virtually enitirely out of wood. This would explain how it went up in flames so quickly and why the destruction was so severe.

I carry one of my cameras with me almost all the time and I had my Zorki at hand that afternoon when I was walking home from work. I shot of a few frames to capture the remains of the building forever, before they bulldoze it to make way for a replacement.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Heath

 

[bmattock]

So glad to hear that no one was hurt. It is sad to lose an historic old building, but they can be replaced more readily than lives.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[Frank Granovski]

The cause of the fire is still unknown

Haven't you been having race riots in Sydney?

 

[James Burton]

Haven't you been having race riots in Sydney?

Yeah, that was a week or so back. I think they have the relevant areas in lockdown.

James

 

[Heath]

Haven't you been having race riots in Sydney?

Yeah, but I didn't want to mention any of that because we are so friendly here at RFF and I didn't want to start any controvercial discussions about race or religion. They don't know if this fire was related, but a few things don't add up. The same time this building went up in smoke another local church had 18 windows smashed by some unknown person. This church is about 300-400 metres from the burnt bulding. Two nights before these events 2 cars were shot in the carpark of a local Catholic primary school. I live right in the middle of this. The Catholic school and church hall are almost equal distance from my home in opposite directions.

Heath

 

[ch1]

Yeah, but I didn't want to mention any of that because we are so friendly here at RFF and I didn't want to start any controvercial discussions about race or religion. They don't know if this fire was related, but a few things don't add up. The same time this building went up in smoke another local church had 18 windows smashed by some unknown person. This church is about 300-400 metres from the burnt bulding. Two nights before these events 2 cars were shot in the carpark of a local Catholic primary school. I live right in the middle of this. The Catholic school and church hall are almost equal distance from my home in opposite directions.

Heath

Heath,

This is so distressing to hear. When I was last in Sydney (late 1990's) it seemed such a "laid back" place - particularly down at the beaches. It's hard to believe that there are such built-up resentments on all sides.

Ironically, my ongoing wintertime slide scanning project continues. I'm just beginning to scan the carousel of my second visit to Oz (the one referred to above). I know I have shots of both Bondi and Manley in there.

BTW: do you have a photo of the building before it burnt down? It would be interesting to see a side-by-side "before and after" study.

George

 

[Nikon Bob]

Heath

It is always sad to see an historic structure destroyed by whatever cause as they can never be replaced. The no loss of life is good news though.

George

Our favourite beach is Manley. We hope to be there in a couple of weeks.

Bob

 

[brightsky]

Loss of any historic structure is sad, especially when it is due to violence.

 

[robert blu]

it is a sad story, specially in a time of the year when people should be full of happiness and peace. It s good no one was hurt.

 

[willie_901]

Great documentary photos.

 

[Heath]

Thank you all for your comments on these shots.

Heath

 

[ChrisN]

Heritage listed? There wouldn't happen to be some property developers interested in the site, would there? Nice location for a block of flats?

 

[Heath]

Heritage listed? There wouldn't happen to be some property developers interested in the site, would there? Nice location for a block of flats?

Don't think so. The land that the building occupied is owned by a church. In fact the church survived the fire even though it is only meer metres away from the burnt out hall, only because the fire brigade hosed it down during the inferno. You can see the church in the third pic.

The only reason the fire was discovered was it set off the sprinkler system and fire alarm in the building next door, which just happens to be a Muslim school (it is the building in the background the second pic, which used to be the local squash courts).

Heath

 

[zuikologist]

Heath - is Sydney still on a *strictly no fires* alert due to the weather conditions? Bad news for Christmas barbecues.