Fortitude Valley nightclub catches fire
Several prominent Fortitude Valley businesses have been damaged by a fire at one of the precinct’s most well-known nightclubs. SEE THE VIDEO
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A blaze that engulfed a well-known Fortitude Valley nightclub has also damaged neighbouring businesses.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services arrived at Famous nightclub, formerly Hot Gossip, about 5am on Friday after an emergency call was made about smoke coming from the second level of the building.
Firefighters kitted with breathing apparatus entered the nightclub, located on Brisbane’s iconic Brunswick St party strip, working to put out multiple fires.
Some 60 crew and 11 fire trucks were called to the scene, including a specialised technical rescue crew with extra expertise in multiple-level fires.
Kemp Place QFES Area Commander Graeme Hall revealed that smoke from the fire had affected the downstairs shopfront, including popular venues Finn McCool’s, Shah Kebabs and Our Place.
@QldFES attending a building fire in Fortitude Valley Mall this morning. These photos were taken leading up to 5am with more sirens in the distance on the way.. a lot of smoke in the area. Right lane on Wickham St outbound affected at Brunswick St. Hope everyone is ok. pic.twitter.com/MDHVk0H6cy
— Brad 🚦The Traffic Guy ðŸ (@BradTrafficGuy) October 29, 2020
“When crews arrived this morning they saw smoke coming out of the ground floor … we were then able to go upstairs and find the ceiling of the second floor had actually collapsed, with the fire burning in the ceiling space.”
It is believed the second floor of the nightclub has been closed due to ongoing renovations.
Commander Hall said the upstairs area was “very difficult to access”.
“We’ll be here for the rest of the day trying to control and suppress those remaining sparks.”
Luckily the fire wasn’t able to spread to neighbouring buildings due to them being separated structures, a fact that ultimately saved more of the famous Valley strip.
“We’re very fortunate this wasn’t able to spread as much as it did.”
Investigations are ongoing into the cause of the fires.
The fire couldn’t have come at a worse time for Finn McCool’s, with sales manager Luke Mellers revealing this weekend was set to be the venue’s biggest of the year.
“We had more events booked for this weekend than any other – tonight we had three massive functions and tomorrow we were due to have four.”
“It’s been an amazingly difficult year and while this hasn’t directly affected us, we’re still being affected by the aftermath.”
“All we know there’s been water coming through the roof from all the water being pumped in. We’ll get the flow-on effects from that unfortunately.”
In a stroke of good luck, fire crews were already on Brunswick St when the fire broke out, with Fortitude Valley Metro Train Station carrying out fire drills early this morning.
“We were doing fire drills this morning and the alarms were going off. Then you heard everyone say there was an actual fire and you couldn’t believe it,” One Queensland Rail employee told The Courier-Mail.