Spencer St Fire: Residents locked out for more two weeks

Residents of the Neo200 high-rise building in Melbourne’s CBD will not be able to return home for up to two weeks.

Residents wait to gain access back to the building. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Residents of the Neo200 high-rise building in Melbourne’s CBD will not be able to return home for up to two weeks after a fire early Monday morning that saw cladding catch alight and flames rush between the 22nd and 27th floors.

The City of Melbourne today said its Municipal Building Surveyor has issued two additional emergency orders as well as a show cause notice for 200 Spencer Street, meaning the building will remain empty for at least 14 more days while emergency systems including smoke alarms, warning and sprinkler systems are restored.

“Safety is the number one priority and residents will not be able to return to the building until the building’s essential safety measures have been restored,” the City of Melbourne said in a statement.

The cladding on the 41 storey Neo200 building — which was classified as a moderate fire risk — was the same as that used on London’s Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died in a June 2017 fire.

Following Monday’s fire, one person was treated for smoke inhalation.

The City of Melbourne said that some of the hundreds of stranded residents might be able to return to their homes before 14 days.

“Under the best case scenario, residents will be able to return to the building by next week but this is dependent on a number of factors,” the statement said.

But those in fire-affected apartments may have to wait longer than 14 days.

An exact number of people displaced by the fire has not been released, but the building contained 371 units.

There have been numerous reports of overcrowding in the building.

Firefighters believe an internal sprinkler system prevented the blaze — suspected of starting when a cigarette butt ignited clothing on one of the balconies — from becoming a “much more significant fire”.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade also raised safety issues over overcrowding, with as many as 10 beds found in some apartments, but argued against making public the list of 360 buildings identified as being in the “higher risk categories” by the Victorian Cladding Taskforce.

There will be no access to the building from 7pm tonight after repairs begin.

Residents have been allowed to enter the building supervised to collect things like passports.

Victorian opposition planning spokesman Tim Smith said the Andrews government and City of Melbourne should fund emergency accommodation for all residents of the NEO 200 building for the next two weeks.

“The City of Melbourne’s decision to extend the emergency order for another 14 days on the NEO 200 building shows there is clearly a very serious problem with dangerous cladding on Victorian apartments,” Mr Smith said.

“How many more dangerous and potentially deadly fires do there need to be before the Andrews Labor government takes action to remove cladding from 360 buildings that have been found to be at the highest risk?

“Hundreds of people living at NEO 200 have had their lives disrupted and will be financially worse off if the government does not act, because of the ham-fisted mismanagement of Richard Wynne.

“Our thoughts are with all of the affected residents and their families during what must be a very frustrating time.”

Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the cladding issue posed a risk to people in public buildings as well as private ones.

“We know that there are people going to work today in unsafe buildings,” he said, seizing on Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s admission in Question Time yesterday that he is yet to appoint a state building inspector, 14 months after he announced he would do so.

“They promised to appoint a state building inspector 14 months ago and we still don’t have one today,” Mr O’Brien said.

“What is it going to take for Daniel Andrews to take this cladding issue seriously and see some action?”

Mr Andrews said his government was in the process of carefully implementing all the recommendations of its cladding taskforce, led by former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu and former Labor deputy premier John Thwaites.

He said “many people” in the Victorian Building Authority were already performing the role of a state building inspector, but referred questions about when an inspector would be appointed to Mr Wynne.

“There are teams of people case managing individual properties, having taken over control if you like for the planning and regulation of those buildings,” Mr Andrews said.

“I’ll leave it to Mr Wynne to make further announcements about individuals, but no one should be in any doubt that significant resources are being dedicated to this task, delivering on the bipartisan recommendations that we sought to make Victoria as safe as we possibly can.”

Mr O’Brien used Question Time today to ask Mr Wynne about dangerous cladding which had been identified on eight Victorian hospitals, including the Royal Women’s Hospital, Casey Hospital, Sunshine Hospital and the north wing expansion of the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Mr Wynne would not say whether remediation work had been completed on any of the hospitals, but said it had commenced on “a number”, including the Royal Women’s.

“Work is being undertaken at the moment, and they’re all compliant, they’re all safe to occupy, and obviously further measures have been put in place to ensure that the buildings are safe to be occupied,” Mr Wynne said.