Darwin Cavenagh St residents warn ‘chronic’ neglect has left apartments unsafe in wake of fire
Darwin city residents who were evacuated following an apartment building fire say they have not felt safe in their own homes for months due to “chronic” maintenance neglect. Read the latest here.
UPDATE: 10am, Thursday: Darwin city residents who were evacuated following a significant fire say they have not felt safe in their own homes for months due to “chronic” maintenance neglect in their city apartment block.
On Wednesday afternoon, dozens of residents were forced to leave their Cavenagh St building due to an apartment fire, with one resident taken to hospital for smoke inhalation treatment.
The blaze broke out in a 10th level unit around 2pm, with the smoke quickly filling the hallway of the entire floor.
Multiple residents told the NT News “mismanagement” of the building and a lack of response to known maintenance issues had slowed their response to the emergency.
Neighbours said the faulty intercom meant fire crews were unable to easily access the building, constant false fire alarms meant residents had been desensitised to the sirens, there were flooded emergency exits, and these fire exits were locked and not everyone had key access.
Lyma Nguyen spoke to the NT News over the phone during the fire as she was trapped on her 10th floor balcony.
She said the situation was “extremely stressful”, as thick smoke filled the hallway to her Cavenaugh St apartment.
“I think the fire is on the other side of the hallway,” Ms Nguyen said over the phone.
The Darwin barrister and her colleague Mark Thomas were unable to leave due to the “thick smoke” outside her apartment.
“He opened the door, and I saw the smoke,” she said.
“I saw just how densely black the hallway was when we opened the door because what I felt was that it was unsafe for us to leave.
“You couldn’t even see past the door once it was opened.
“We weren’t really sure where the fire was coming from and it was just. It just looked extremely unsafe.
“So we immediately closed the door and then just... staying on the balcony where there’s fresh air.”
Her 10th floor neighbour Finn Finn said she walked out of her home to a “hall just full of smoke”.
The Cavenagh St resident said she saw the door to apartment 106 was “starting to melt and turning black”.
“The fire alarm went off and within seconds the place was filled with smoke,” Finn said.
“There was smoke everywhere, it was filling the whole place... it was unbelievable.”
She said she was going down the fire escape as she told a representative of Body Corporate “this is real, the place is on fire”.
Ms Nguyen and several other residents claimed the building had been mismanaged for years, resulting in major defects being ignored.
She alleged the building’s fire stairs were often locked, but not every resident had a key to the emergency access route.
Multiple residents told the NT News about complaints made to the body corporate, including the lifts often breaking down, a defective rubbish shoot, persistent leaks, holes in the ceilings, a flooded fire exit and the fact the intercom system had been broken for a year.
Ms Nguyen said this meant residents - particularly those with disabilities - could not access Coles and Woolworths food deliveries, Australia Post could not drop off packages, and residents had to go downstairs every time a visitor arrived.
“The intercom not working is a massive issue,” she said.
“This has been raised with the body corporate many, many times.”
A Level Four resident told the NT News due to the broken intercom, emergency services needed to use her own access pass to enter the building to respond to the fire.
“They just had to borrow my swipe so that the fire brigade could get into the building,” Jules O’Mara said.
Ms O’Mara said she and her neighbours had become desensitised to alarms going off “randomly” at all hours of the day and night.
She said she left her apartment thinking it was another false alarm, only to be told by another neighbour: “No, the whole 10th floor has got smoke everywhere”.
Ms O’Mara said she then started calling around to her neighbours telling them to “get the hell out”, saying “It’s real get out of the building”.
Multiple residents said they only realised it was a ‘real’ emergency when warned by their neighbours.
Ms Nguyen said the Wednesday fire was a clear example of how dangerous these compounding maintenance issues were.
“There’s a real life example about when it really matters, when it’s life and death,” Ms Nguyen said.
It’s a reality fellow resident Leah Potter said she had faced multiple times, telling the NT News she had called the ambulance three times this year only for paramedics to be unable to access the building.
“Each time they’ve had to wait with someone else to come through,” Ms Potter said.
She said the issues in the building were “chronic”, candidly saying: “ I feel really unsafe”.
“They don’t do any maintenance,” she said.
“They don’t fix anything, they just keep saying ‘oh no it’s old and unmaintained’.”
UPDATE 4.20pm,Wednesday: The owner of a Darwin CBD apartment that caught fire has been taken to hospital for smoke inhalation, with other residents allowed back into their homes.
Significant smoke was billowing out of the 10th floor of an apartment block on Cavenagh Street with one unit alight.
NT Police Force and St John Ambulance NT also attended the scene, however no injuries were reported.
As of 4pm residents of apartments below the 10th floor were allowed to return while the road was reopened to the public.
Station Command Skevos Politis said fire and emergency services had initially responded to a fire alarm which later turned into a structure fire incident.
He confirmed the owner of the apartment had been taken to the hospital
“We took two crews up and gained entry to the 10th floor where the structure fire was,” he said.
“At this stage fire investigators are still looking into the cause and we have no further details.
“There were no injuries, just some smoke inhalation from people who lived on the 10th floor and they’ve been assessed by St Johns.
“The 10th floor has been shut while the investigators are doing their job, there’s a lot of damage up there and a lot of water when we get that to an acceptable level we will let people back in.
“We had to force entry to all rooms to ensure no occupants were trapped, we did a full search of all rooms with all occupants accounted for and safe.”
INITIAL 2.30pm,Wednesday: A Darwin barrister trapped on the balcony of her 10th floor CBD apartment due to a fire in the building has shared how it was too dangerous to try and escape.
Lyma Nguyen spoke to the NT News over the phone from her balcony, as fire crews worked to contain the blaze impacting partof a building in Cavenaugh Street.
She said the situation was “extremely stressful”, as thick smoke filled the hallway to her apartment.
“I think the fire is on the other side of the hallway,” Ms Nguyen said over the phone.
The Darwin barrister and her colleague Mark Thomas were unable to leave due to the “thick smoke” outside the apartment.
“He opened the door, and I saw the smoke,” she said.
“I saw just how densely black the hallway was when we opened the door because what I felt was that it was unsafe for us to leave.
“You couldn’t even see past the door once it was opened.
“We weren’t really sure where the fire was coming from and it was just. It just looked extremely unsafe.
“So we immediately closed the door and then just stayed inside... staying on the balcony where there’s fresh air.”
Cavenagh Street remains closed as smoke billows from an apartment above, with fire engines filling the street.
A Cavenagh Street building was evacuated about 1.30pm with cops blocking the road in both direction while people looked on in confusion.
Three fire engines as well as the NTFRS Hazardous Material and Recovery Unit are on the scene at the building that houses establishments such as KikDigital and popular restaurant Lazy Susans.
A further two fire engines were blocking Austin Lane on the opposite side of the building.
The building is adjacent to the former Darwin RSL location, which burned down in 2018.
NT Fire and Emergency Services have been contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Darwin Cavenagh St residents warn ‘chronic’ neglect has left apartments unsafe in wake of fire
