By TOM HAYES
AN electrical fault has been discovered to be the cause of the fire that destroyed the Morwell Bowling Club in the early hours of Tuesday, August 20.
Fire investigators believe the fault occurred in the switchboard, which forced more than 60 firefighters consisting of Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) personnel and support from neighbouring Country Fire Authority crews to be called to the fire at 12.30am.
“On arrival the brigade found that the fire had extended through the roof – and the building is approximately 80 metres by 60 metres,” Morwell FRV captain, Shane Mynard, told 3AW on the morning of August 20.
“Once (the fire) got established, it ran through the roof space very quickly, which made it hard to contain.”
It is reported that the fire in the roof caused it to collapse, forcing internal firefighters to operate externally, which slowed down the extinguishing process.
Water supply was reported to be an issue for firefighters, as they were required to call for more resources from as far away as Dandenong.
“Close to 95 per cent of the building is completely destroyed,” Mr Mynard said. He said that most of the extension was saved, however the destroyed portion of the building will likely need to be demolished.
The blaze took about three hours to get under control and was confirmed to have started from the inside.
Mr Mynard said the business was last open until about 11pm on Monday, August 19.
At the time he believed the incident wasn’t suspicious, but it couldn’t be determined until the investigators came to a conclusion.
“It’s a bit of a hub for the local community, and it’s a shame that this has occurred,” Mr Mynard said.
Last month, the Morwell Bowling Club won multiple awards at the Community Clubs Victoria awards night. The club was presented with the awards for Best Community Club Redevelopment, and Regional Best Club Bistro/Restaurant.
Morwell Bowling Club General Manager, Teena Johnson, was at a loss for words describing her reaction to the blaze.
“It still, to me, seems surreal. I’m looking out thinking ‘This doesn’t happen, this is not real’. It’s just crazy,” she said.
Morwell Bowling Club General Manager, Teena Johnson has been a part of the club for more than 20 years and has held the position of general manager for the last five.
She said the community support has been second-to-none, with many organisations and individuals asking to help in some way, shape, or form.
“You realise how much a club like this means to everyone when something like this does happen,” Ms Johnson said.
“We’ve had all the clubs in the Latrobe Valley virtually reach out to us. They have all been amazing.
“All of the sporting clubs we sponsor, same thing – they’ve reached out.”
Ms Johnson told the Express that clubs from all over the Latrobe Valley had offered rooms to hold meetings or use as office spaces.
She added that from those organisations, the bowling clubs in particular had granted access to Morwell Bowling Club members to use their greens to practice or play, as well as offering to host events of all kinds on the Morwell Bowling Club’s behalf.
Ms Johnson spoke of some short-term and long-term resolutions for the Morwell Bowling Club, with a number or different avenues arising in the days after the blaze.
“Everything I’ve heard… it’s virtually a pull down and rebuild,” Ms Johnson said. She said the people she had spoken to have told her the process could take around two years to complete.
Despite this news, Ms Johnson hopes to bring operation back to the Morwell Bowling Club in a temporary form while the likely demolition and rebuild is in progress.
“The aim is for us to virtually get operational as much as possible, as soon as possible,” she said.
“Our aim is virtually as soon as we’re able to get some form of structure operational, we’ll open. We’ll trade through this while we’re building, to virtually get our members back, to say ‘Hi’, they need to come back and engage.
“The room through the middle of the bowling green is still intact, so I’m hoping they’ll allow us to have public access. We could at least set up an office in there.
“The insurance company has also mentioned the idea of virtually doing a pop-up club in the car park just to get us operational.”
While details get sorted in the coming months, Ms Johnson is hopeful that operation of some form mentioned can come to life within the next three months.
Unfortunately for Morwell Bowling Club, the function centre, which was initially reported to have no damage, actually sustained some damage, putting it out of use.
If the function centre was free from damage, the Morwell Bowling Club could have operated out of it in the interim. With the function centre out of action, Ms Johnson also confirmed they won’t be able to host any functions until the final re-build is complete.
In regard to staff, Ms Johnson is yet to know what the future will hold for them, with no realistic return point set at this stage.
However, she hopes with her short-term ideas that staff will be able to return to work and connect with the community once again before the end of the year.
Ms Johnson held a meeting with Morwell Bowling Club staff at the end of last week to provide a brief update on the situation.
She also met with insurers in hopes of gaining more information on the foreseeable future. No update has been made as of yet.
Morwell Bowling Club is the home to many events, but primarily bowls, whether on a local or state-wide scale.
Plans for how these events will be facilitated are already in the early stages.
“We do have a big bowls event in September (Jack Wilkinson Open Spring Classic) – that may not go ahead, not really sure just yet. A lot will depend on the structural engineer and what access they’re going to allow us around the damaged areas,” Ms Johnson said.
“The Vic Open, the plan is we’ll be operational to some form, and we will be going for the Vic Open.”
Bowls Victoria’s Vic Open is set to be played in March and according to Ms Johnson, the bowling greens and roofs are fine, with an operational bistro the final thing they’d need for the event.
While many things can be replaced, countless memories were lost in the fire last Tuesday morning.
After being in operation for 111 years, the Morwell Bowling Club lost many possessions including irreplaceable memorabilia and photos.
“That’s hitting a bit hard right now that it’s been lost. That affects the members also because that’s their history,” Ms Johnson said.
