Beach Drive Motel in Batemans Bay badly damaged in ‘suspicious’ blaze

A South Coast motel known around the community as the ‘Crystal Palace’ has been seriously damaged after two “suspicious” fires destroyed a room and car overnight.

The Beach Drive Motel was badly damaged in the fire. Picture: Tom McGann

A South Coast motel known around the community as the ‘Crystal Palace’ has been seriously damaged after two “suspicious” fires destroyed a room and car overnight.

Beach Drive Motel in Batemans Bay, was engulfed with the fires early Tuesday morning, one inside a motel room and another inside a car parked at the facility.

A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said the fires which had badly damaged a unit and destroyed a car were being treated as “suspicious”.

“On arrival, firefighters found one car on fire and one unit upstairs on fire,” he told this publication.

“Both fires were extinguished by 6am.”

Fire and Rescue said the fire was being treated as suspicious. Picture: Facebook

The spokesman said the blaze required two fire trucks and with eight firefighters.

He said firefighters left the motel by 7.45am, with clean-up crews entering the site Tuesday morning.

Clean up crews are not at the scene. Picture: Tom McGann

No evacuation orders were made at the time of the blaze and no injuries have been reported, but residents have been told to avoid the area while clean ups and investigations into the blaze take place.

The Fire and Rescue spokesman said a cause of the fire was not yet determined, but revealed investigations were being taken over by NSW Police given the suspicious nature of the blaze.

NSW Police confirmed their investigations have commenced.

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Originally published as Beach Drive Motel in Batemans Bay badly damaged in ‘suspicious’ blaze