Cause behind fire that forced SEN off air revealed

It’s the controversial tech company that’s riled Donald Trump, and now its been revealed as the cause of the fire that forced SEN off air. The blaze led to three hours of radio silence on the sports station.

The blaze forced Garry Lyon and Tim Watson off air.

Sports radio station SEN was recently forced off air during their busy brekky timeslot after a fire alarm sounded at Craig Hutchison’s Crocmedia’s Southbank studios.

The station went dark shortly before 6am on June 21, with AFL legends and breakfast hosts Garry Lyon and Tim Watson alerted listeners via Twitter they had been evacuated.

The fire forced more than three hours of radio silence on the 1116 airwaves, before a return around 9am — from a makeshift studio in a radio commentary box at the MCG.

On return, the station initially aired news and recorded programming, before Lyon and Andy Maher were live around 9.30am.

Fireys evacuated the building and Page 13 learned the fire started on the third floor, occupied by Chinese tech giant Huawei.

SEN Breakfast... bringing you straight to the home of footy!#1116SEN pic.twitter.com/4YpGk8CiQ3

— Garry and Tim (@SENBreakfast) June 20, 2019

The telecoms behemoth is often accused of working with Chinese spy agencies. We hear the damage in the building is yet to be sorted. Red alert.

Lyon and Watson explained the situation to listeners.

“Friday, 6am, Tim and I would normally be getting ready to come down the airwaves, but we have a drama here in our South Melbourne studios,” Lyon said in a video posted on the SEN Twitter account.

RELATED

IS KB, HUTCHY RELATIONSHIP FRACTURED?

CUMMINGS SACKED OVER SEX COMMENTS

MORE PAGE 13 STORIES

“In the building there’s a fire in the third floor. Thankfully, we were on the fifth.

“Small fire, not a large one, but it’s large enough for us not to be on air.”

Watson said he could smell smoke and other chemicals.

“In all seriousness we’ve been evacuated from the building,” he said.

“We’re waiting for the firemen now who are up on the third floor to alert us as to how serious the fire is.

“We are just waiting now to be given some sort of direction as to when or if we are going to be able to re-enter the fifth floor we’re we can record our program from.”

@AliceHeraldSun

[e-mail]