When they arrived they found the 90 year old French’s Dry Cleaning business totally involved in fire and impinging onto adjoining shops in the Coles shopping complex. The factory was approx 60 X 30 metres including the office block at the front.
Initial firefighting crews using hose lines worked hard and were successful in preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings. The call was made for 5 pumpers and then upgraded to 7 plus Hose Layer and two aerial appliances.
As there was a risk of structural collapse crews were kept back at a safe distance and the aerial appliances worked from above. This plan worked well as the side wall collapsed onto the side road and nobody was injured.
Being a dry cleaning company the building contained a variety of chemicals and there was a chemical residue run off which was being monitored by EPA. Health inspectors, water, power & gas companies and Police also attended as the highway was closed to traffic.
Crews attended from Healesville, Badgers Creek, Lilydale, Yarra Glen, Coldstream, Montrose, Scoresby, Dandenong, Yarra Junction, Hallam (later on in the day for Hazmat recovery) and MFB Pumper-Tanker 26 and Teleboom 22.
Ops Officer Kennedy and Wright also attended and worked with Healesville Captain as the Incident Controller.
A fire stop was placed on the call at 3:15am although blacking out continued well into the day once the council supplied machinery to help push walls down and gain access.
Video footage update to be supplied shortly.
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