Fire rips through Dromana beach box owned by Blue Range Estate family
Little more than a week after a Dromana beach box was broken into, it has gone up in flames. Here’s what we know.
South East
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A fire that destroyed an historic beach box on the Mornington Peninsula is being investigated.
The Dromana structure burst into flames about 6.25am on Wednesday.
Dromama fire station is just 200m from the beach box and crews were quickly on site.
They were joined by crews from Rosebud CFA and Fire Rescue Victoria.
Dromana captain Tim Desmond said the beach box was quickly engulfed and flames started to spead to nearby grass scrub.
Crews wearing breathing apparatus quickly brought the fire under control, he said.
“The fire is being treated as suspicious, a CFA Fire Investigator and Somerville Criminal Investigation Unit were onsite checking over the fire.”
The Dromana beach box is owned by Cosi Melone and his family.
Mr Melone was nearby at his family’s Rosebud winery when he saw an image of the fire on social media.
“I came straight here,” he said.
“Everything is gone. I don’t think we can salvage anything that was inside.
“We’ll have to do a complete rebuild.”
Mr Melone said the powered boat shed had been used a lot by the family over the past 30 years.
“We’ve been there a lot over the past three or four months,” he said.
“And I have memories of being in it when my son, who’s now 27, was still in nappies.”
Mr Melone said the beach box was recently broken into and two paddle boards worth about $1000 in total were stolen.
“We had to replace nine wooden panels that were smashed to gain entry and that had only just been done,” he said.
Mr Melone had “no idea” what the beach box was worth.
A similar beach box just steps away went on the market on January 19 with an asking price of up to $430,000.
There are 240 beach boxes and boatsheds along the Dromana foreshore and about 50 per cent of them are powered.
