The small rural Township of Toolamba in North East Victoria's Region 22 was woken to find their Primary school had been destroyed by fire. Fire crews were alerted about 4:00 am of the blaze and as the first appliance had arrived on scene at the Whren Street property, the school was well ablaze.
The first person to alert 000 says: “We were woken by the sound of explosions and as we walked outside to investigate, the school was well alight.”
The blaze took about 60 firefighters with 17 appliances around 90 minutes to bring under control. Fire appliances and crews were called from Toolamba, Mooroopna, Shepparton, Tatura, Murchison, Cooma, North West Mooroopna and Rushworth. Police say it might take days to establish what exactly had caused the fire.
The community of Toolamba lost about 130 years of the school’s history in the fire. The town’s kindergarten was also destroyed in the blaze and the teachers are aiming to have the schools 122 students back in class as soon as possible.
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