The Northern Rivers Times Edition 130

FIRE DESTROYS BUILDING IN GRAFTON CBD

By Tim Howard

A massive fire in the Grafton CBD has destroyed a building with links to the automotive trade stretching back nearly a century.

The fire, in the old Ford motor dealership between Victoria and Fitzroy streets, began just before 4pm on December 28.

The site was occupied on the Victoria St side by a towing and vehicle recovery business, Broomy’s Towing & Recovery and on the Fitzroy St side by church-based support organisation, Grafton Australian Community Care Inc.

NSW Fire and Rescue Grafton station captain Garry Reardon said the fire had spread through both businesses which occupied the same building.

But he said firefighters had been able to stop the fire spreading to a section of the towing business where are number of cars and other vehicles were stored.

“There might be some heat damage, but none of the vehicles caught fire,” Mr Reardon said.

The owner of Broomy’s Towing & Recovery, operating from the Victoria St side, was in the building when he first noticed the fire.

“I had just finished doing a service on the truck, when I noticed smoke pouring into the building,” Mr Broomhall said.

“I thought something was seriously wrong, so I backed the truck out of the building and phoned the fire brigade.

“In that time the fire and smoke got so bad I couldn’t get back in to save anything else.”

He said a number of vehicles stored on site had been damaged, but were recoverable.

Mr Broomhall said the building had been destroyed in the fire but he was still operating his business.

“The truck is OK and we’re working towards finding a new location for the business,” he said.

“People have been saying on Facebook and such we’re shut down, but that’s not right.

“We’re still operating 24/7, but it has been hard.”

Flames rip through the old building which houses the ACCN Grafton operation and a towing and recovery business.

Mr Broomhall along with other business owners in the vicinity said there had been a group of people “squatting” behind his business.

“There were kids just before the fire, I could hear them. They got out before the fire took hold,” he said.

The manager of ACCN operation, Alison Tomlinson, refused to comment at the time of the fire and further calls to number listed for the service have not been answered.

But Mr Broomhall said the community support operation, which provides low-cost food, furniture and other items to people in need, had been operating as usual

from the Fitzroy St side.

Mr Reardon said the fire had taken hold by the time his fire truck, Grafton 306, arrived at the fire scene at 4.09pm.

He said a huge plume

of toxic, black smoke was pouring from the building.

That vehicle was joined soon after by the station’s Hazmat vehicle and soon after by South Grafton Fire and Rescue trucks and at least three Rural Fire Service Brigades.

The owner of Broomy’s Towing & Recovery, Dean Broomhall, said he only had time to get his truck out of the building when he first noticed smoke from the fire. “It only took a few minutes and I couldn’t get back in there,” he said.

“We had some manpower issues, so it was great those other brigades arrived,” he said.

“They were the reason we were able stop the fire extending into other buildings.”

He said NSW Fire and Rescue vehicles from Grafton, South Grafton, Maclean, Yamba, Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga and Lismore attended, in addition to RFS trucks.

Police and a number of ambulances were also involved.

Mr Reardon said firefighters were aware the building’s long term use as an automotive repair site would mean the presence of flammable and toxic substances.

Fire fighters don protective gear before entering the building which was covered in toxic smoke.

He said firefighters

Fire fighters doused the building for hours after the fire was first reported shortly before 4pm on December 28

used breathing equipment when fighting the blaze and police set up a safety zone to keep the public well away from the seat of the fire.

He said the building had been extensively

damaged and it looked like several sections had collapsed.

By 6pm he felt the fire had been contained, but firefighters continued to pour jets of water into the building.

Former employees of businesses operating from the building, who worked nearby or came

to watch, were concerned the site was a fire hazard.

One said generations of workers had used a pit on the site to dispose of sump oil, spoiled fuel and other chemicals.

They also had concerns

there were underground fuel tanks on the site might still contain flammable residue.

Police set up a safety perimeter and advised onlookers to move when wind changes blew smoke from the fire their way.

The site has been used by automotive trades since at least the 1920s.

Originally called City Motor Garage and Engineering it had frontage onto Prince St where the current Toast Cafe operates.

In following decades the front of the building moved to Victoria St and it acquired its current footprint in the late 1940s when an aircraft hangar from the airbase at Koolkhan was moved to the site to house the work shed.

It operated as Greenaway Ford from the 1960s into the 80s and became Boyd Boland Ford in the 1980s until the early 90s when it became Mid City Ford and finally Mighty River Ford shortly before its closure around 2009-10.

While it operated as a Ford dealership it was also the headquarters of the Grafton NRMA Road service.

Since the closure of the Ford dealership the site has been split and leased to the two businesses.

Police refused to

comment on the cause of the fire and have yet to issue a statement about it.

Forensic investigators from the police and insurance companies have gone over the site.