Q Station Burns: Power fault blamed
Friday 8 February, 2002

An electrical fault has been blamed for a fire that totally destroyed an historic hospital building at the Quarantine Station yesterday.

Witnesses said they saw an explosion of flames engulf the 1883 building, one of the oldest buildings on the site, just before 3pm.

More than 40 firefighters with eight units fought the blaze.

All that remained of the historic building after the fire were four large chimneys and a small alcove.

A National Parks and Wildlife Service spokeswoman said the whole station had been blacked out earlier in the day but the fault had been repaired by Energy Australia.

It is believed the hospital building, designated H1, burst into flames soon after the power was restored to the site.

The spokeswoman said the station experienced several blackouts each year.

Eyewitness Willi Sirks, who was visiting the station on other business, said she saw smoke coming from the building and yelled to some NPWS workers nearby.

She said they immediately drove off to fight the fire while rangers contacted the fire brigade.

"It was just so flammable and the fire was making a loud crackling sound." Ms Sirks said.

Witness: 'I just saw building blow up'

Manly solicitor Jonathon Anton witnessed the explosion from his Landerdale Ave office about 3pm.

"I was talking to a client on the phone and I said, 'You're not going to believe this, I just saw a building blow up'," Mr. Anton said. "I got off the phone and got my binoculars and telescope out and I saw four people running away from the building.

Mr. Anton told police he saw three people dressed in woman's clothing and a bearded man running from the scene.

Manly resident Peter Alexander noticed the fire while fishing at Little Manly Point about 500m away.

"Once it stared burning there was a moment that was almost like an explosion and the flames just doubled in intensity," he said.

Fire Brigade spokesman Superintendent Ian Krimmer said the first firefighters arrived within seven minutes of receiving the emergency call but the building was already well alight.

"The fire took hold quickly and was burning end-to-end by the time the first crew arrived," he said.

"The aged and weathered condition of the weatherboard building contributed tot he speed of the fire through the building, backed by a strong sea breeze.'

Firefighters from Manly, Crows Nest, Mosman, Dee Why, Narrabeen and Forestville fought the blaze. Because of the lack of water on the site, firefighters pumped water from Sydney Harbour using a relay of fire units.

Supt Krimmer said the firefighters rightly concentrated their efforts on saving an adjoining hospital building which survived.

Mawland Hotel Management Group chief executive officer Max Player, whose company is negotiating a 45 year lease of the station for use as a hotel and restaurant complex, said the building was an integral part of the site and would have to be rebuilt. He said much of the historical material in the building was irreplaceable.

Mr. Player said he was loath to the comment on the fire but admitted he "felt shithouse" when he saw the destruction.

"I was almost crying when I came up here and saw what had happened," he said.

The blaze comes less than four months after fire destroyed another 1883 building at the station.

Manly MP David Barr said the scene was one of "utter and complete desolation".

"There's virtually nothing left of Hospital Ward H1," he said.

Mr. Barr said the Government should pull back immediately from the lease process, put the Quarantine Station in the hands of a trustee and provide adequate funding to ensure the country's heritage was properly protected.

Manly councilor Sue Sacker and former councilor Nina Burridge, prominent members of the Friends of Quarantine Station, were also scathing about the State Government's neglect of the site.

"The Government has looked upon this site as something to be got rid of," Cr. Sacker said.

"They've been trying to lease it out for the last 13 or 14 years and haven't looked after it properly.

"One of the first actions the conservation plan done in 2000 required the Government to do was to fix up fire management and security, but it has been so obsessed with turning the site into a milch cow for National Parks, it has spent half a million dollars trying to offload it to a private developer and very little on maintaining it."

Ms. Burridge said with the commission of inquiry into the leasing process for the Quarantine station due to start on Monday, the Government should "pull the plug on the whole thing, have a complete rethink, access the damage and access what it will do to protect the site".

by John Morcombe, Marj Belessis and Simone Richards.
Source: The Manly Daily

Editorial: A page of Australia's history is lost forever

There are conflicting reports over exactly what started the fire which gutted the hospital at the Quarantine Station yesterday afternoon.

Initial suggestions are that the blaze was an accident, possible the result of a short-circuit or wiring problem exacerbated by the wet weather of the past week. Late yesterday investigations were checking information that authorised tradespeople were at the Quarantine Station to restore power after a blackout only an hour or so before the fire began.

But an eyewitness also reported seeing an explosion and then witnessing four people running from the site as the flames took hold.

Why we may be heartened by the fact that nobody was injured in this blaze it it also apparent that an irreplaceable chunk of peninsula history - a chapter immensely significant to all of Australia - as been erased forever.

Hopefully investigations will quickly unravel the circumstances of the incident and rule out foul play.

Nonetheless, it seems an extraordinary coincidence that two of the oldest buildings on the historic headland, part of a time capsule which has survived unscathed and unchanged for as many generations have been razed in separate incidents only a few months apart.

by The Editor
Source: The Manly Daily