Building at College Rd, Berrimah on fire
Investigations into the cause of a fire that destroyed a Berrimah medical supplies warehouse are continuing as the blaze still burns. Check out the pictures here.
Northern Territory
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POLICE are continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze that caused $30m worth of damage to a warehouse in Berrimah.
The fire on Sunday, August 21, caused significant damage to the structure on College Road and remains ongoing, with excavators expected to gain more access to the razed building.
“Along with investigating the cause of the fire, NT Fire and Rescue Service’s primary objective is to protect the assets around the structure fire now, DIPL have been contacted to assist with earth moving equipment to help knock-out walls so fireys can continue to put out any spot fires,” chief fire officer Mark Spain said.
“The fire hasn’t been fully extinguished and will smoulder for a number of days,” he said.
A number of police officers were on the scene on Tuesday, taking photos and gathering evidence via drone.
It was later revealed the facility housed medical supplies for Top End hospitals, leading to a concern of how long current supplies would last.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 21: THE health storage facility, where an estimated $30m worth of equipment went up in flames, remains on fire as emergency services crews struggle to reach the epicentre of the blaze.
Northern Watch Commander Meacham King said a structural engineer had been called to the scene on Monday morning to assess the integrity of the building walls and to “come up with a cunning plan” on how to reach the inferno.
“The issue they’re facing is that they’re worried about the structural integrity of the walls because they have to get through the walls to get to where the fire is,” Cmdr King.
“I believe it holds a lot of medical equipment for Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Hospital.”
Cmdr King said a crime scene has been declared but authorities have no indication on whether or not the incident is suspicious.
Emergency services were called to the blaze on College Rd, Berrimah about 10.30am on Sunday.
Toxic smoke billowed out of the building, with tanks of flammable materials moved out of the way of the fire.
Boarding students at Haileybury Rendall, opposite the property, were evacuated from the school for their safety.
A statement from NT Health revealed the warehouse supplied Royal Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Gove hospitals and as a result, was forced to call a Code Brown for Top End government facilities.
“The NT Health Incident Management Team has been established and is working to conduct a stocktake across its hospitals and health facilities to determine the level of medical supplies immediately available for patient care,” it read.
“As a result of the fire, a Code Brown has been called across NT Health facilities and is expected to be in place for the next 24-48 hours. A Code Brown is called when there is an external incident that requires a system-wide response.
“All hospitals remain open at this time and no patient services will be impacted.”
Chief Fire Officer Mark Spain said a massive effort was undertaken to control the fire, with 28 firefighters rushing to the scene, the “Bronto” with a 44m ladder and pumpers from Darwin, Marrara and Berrimah.
He said south-easterly winds helped firefighters maintain the blaze at the property.
“We expect this fire, given the location of it and the structural integrity of the building, it will take two or three days before we can get on top of it,” he said.
“It’s very early at this stage to determine how it started.
“The initial estimate’s come in about $30m. it was a health storage facility but that’s early stages.
“It was quick action by the fire crews to put in exposure lines and protect exposures in relation to that building. We’d already conceded the fire to the building and our primary objective was to protect other assets around the location.
“We know that the oxygen cylinders, they exploded later on into the fire so we kept a safe distance. All that is combustible material, that’s what produced the toxic smoke.”
Fireys spent time in the rural Darwin area fighting blazes on Eugene Rd in Virginia on Sunday.
Cmdr King said police officers attended a property neighbouring a bushfire and housed puppy kennels and a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray vintage car, all while the owners were not home.
“Those three police officers using buckets or whatever they could worked pretty hard to contain the blaze until the fire units would come around and back them up,” Cmdr King said.
“They did a fantastic job and under those circumstances to restrict that blaze otherwise, most of those animals would have perished and that car and numerous sheds would have gone up in flames.”
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