Brunswick Hotel fire: One of Hobart’s oldest pubs on fire
Residents, property and business owners impacted by the Brunswick Hotel blaze is encouraged to attend a public meeting held by the Tasmania Fire Service. LATEST + PHOTOS >>
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Any property owners, business operators or residents affected by the Brunswick Hotel blaze should attend a 9am public meeting, the Tasmanian Fire Service has said.
The meeting has been planned for Tuesday morning on the corner of Elizabeth Street Mall near the National Australia Bank at the TFS marquee after the fire created smoke damage for nearby buildings and saw a block on Liverpool St close to pedestrians and motorists on Monday.
A TFS spokeswoman said the meeting was for those residing or operating in the Liverpool St section between Argyle and Elizabeth streets.
“Items to be discussed include power supply, access, reopening of the road and an opportunity to ask questions,” the spokeswoman said.
‘Gut wrenching’: History up in smoke as pub burns down
A FAMILY has been left with only the clothes they were wearing after being forced to flee the Brunswick Hotel in Hobart which caught fire in the early hours of Monday morning.
Yonas Gebremedhin was staying in accommodation there with his wife Smraweta Kidni and their two sons Banaher, 5, and Aram, 3.
He said his wife noticed the smell of smoke and they evacuated the building about 1.50am within a matter of minutes.
Mr Gebremedhin said he only had time to make sure his wife and children were safe and get them out safely, and was not able to grab any of their possessions.
“It was very scary. We ran away from there,’’ he said.
“The whole upstairs was covered [with smoke].
“We don’t have anything. I have to drive somewhere, Kmart maybe, we’ll go there and buy some clothes.”
Mr Gebremedhin said the main thing was that the family from Launceston, who were visiting Hobart for the first time for the weekend, were safe.
“[It] was very scary, but we are OK at the moment,’’ he said.
“But I’m very sad about that hotel.”
He said the Brunswick Hotel’s manager had organised them to stay at nearby Crowne Plaza for the night which he was thankful for.
“Very nice. He was very scared, even the manager, but he’s organised for me to sleep today here. That is good,’’ Mr Gebredmehin said.
Mr Gebremedhin said his youngest son suffered nausea and vomiting after the fire but the family was otherwise in good health.
He explained the family was originally from the East African country of Eritrea, and had been living in Launceston since last year.
“We are happy here. There is safety and we are happy,’’ he said.
Tasmania Fire Service advised that Liverpool Street between Argyle and Elizabeth Street would remain closed until at least midday tomorrow (Tuesday) as the fire is investigated.
10AM: Darren Brown was rebuilding the beloved Brunswick Hotel after Covid-19, but the building’s second ever fire dealt a “gut wrenching” blow to him, his staff, and people living in the building now without a home.
The Brunswick Hotel manager jumped in the car with his wife in the early hours of Monday morning to race to their cherished workplace as the fire broke out.
“It was a little bit like reliving the Myer fire,” Mr Brown said.
“We live on the Eastern Shore and we could see the glow of the Myer fire back then from our place, and as we came across the bridge we could tell we had a similar fire because there was a glow in the city.”
Mr Brown said fortunately everyone was out of the building when he arrived in the city.
His wife relocated families and young couples to the Crowne Hotel, with some tenants in the building stranded.
“Two guys lived upstairs, one of them was up there for five years. He’s without his home as well now,” Mr Brown said.
“One of the gentlemen, he’s sitting at Banjos at the moment in tracksuit bottoms and a pair of thongs. That’s his entire world at the moment, he doesn’t have anything else.
“We might be able to see if there’s anything left in his room later in the day, but we don’t know. We’ll get him some support, we’ll get him some accommodation.”
Mr Brown said he and his wife had done everything they could to save the business during the pandemic, including taking redundancies and making plans to rebuild with renovations.
Now, 28 of his staff were now without a job.
He said it was “too early to tell” what the future of the building was.
“It’s gut wrenching,” Mr Brown said.
“Hopefully we rebuild, hopefully we’ll come back bigger and better.
“Post-Covid it was very sad in our industry and it was just starting to come back to life.”
He said the industry was already reaching out to support him and his staff.
“It’s just amazing the resilience and the camaraderie of our industry,” he said.
“We’ll come together as we always do. The staff are just worried about us at the moment and here we are worried about them.”
Mr Brown said the historic Brunswick was built in 1836 by an ex-convict from Norfolk Island.
“It became a coaching inn when stagecoaches were a thing,” he said.
“One of the first ever female licensees took over the Brunswick in 1846.”
He said this was the second major fire to rip through the building, with the facade destroyed in 1927.
8.45AM:
Pedestrians are being kept out of Liverpool St as firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the Brunswick Hotel in Liverpool St.
Pilgrim Coffee owner Will Priestley said there were concerns about the hotel’s structural integrity.
“The fire is still going. I have heard the structural integrity of the building has been compromised,” Mr Priestley said.
“The roof has caved in and I have heard it could be days before the street is reopened.”
Mr Priestley arrived at his business at 5am. The fire had been burning at the hotel for three hours by then.
Firefighters arrived at 2am to find the fire well alight. An evacuation was carried out with firefighters getting some hotel occupants out via a second storey window.
Mr Priestley, who saw Pilgrim Coffee destroyed by fire in 2018, said hearing about a fire in the street again brought back terrifying memories.
“We knew it was not our business again but to hear about another being destroyed by fire brought back terrifying memories,” he said.
Tasmanian Hospitality Association chief executive Steve Old said it was “horrible news”.
Mr Old said the venue is managed by Darren and Deb Brown.
“Our first concern was making sure Darren, Deb and the staff were OK and the message I got back was that they are all OK,” he said.
“It’s really sad to lose an iconic pub like that with a fantastic history and to lose it is extremely sad.
“The one bright light is that no one has been injured. You can always rebuild a building, but it would have been tragic to have anyone caught up in it.”
Mr Old said the Browns used to run the Shoreline Hotel but took over the Brunswick Hotel in recent years.
All businesses on Liverpool Street between Argyle and Elizabeth Streets (that have front of shop access from Liverpool St) will be closed until further notice due to power interruptions, smoke and the ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire.
Liverpool Street between Argyle and Elizabeth Street is closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic until further notice and people are asked to avoid the area.
Fire crews are still working to extinguish the fire, with the significant amount of smoke causing multiple alarm activations in buildings around the Hobart CBD which fire crews are currently responding to.
“TFS crews were called to the fire just before 2am and arrived to find the building well alight,” a spokesperson said.
“An evacuation immediately took place, with firefighters evacuating some occupants through a second-storey window.
“At least 30 firefighters were on scene at the peak of the fire. The fire has been contained to the hotel.
“An investigation into the cause of the fire will commence once the fire is extinguished.”
The hotel is one of Tasmania’s oldest pubs and was built by convicts in 1827 — just 20 years after the first Europeans settled in Hobart.
It started life as a sly grog shop under the name Brunswick Wine Vaults and was granted a liquor licence in 1831.
It is one of Hobart’s oldest continuously operated hotels behind the city’s oldest, the Hope and Anchor Hotel which was built in 1807.
The hotel was gutted by fire back in 1926 but was rebuilt and has many owners over the years.
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