FIRE DESTROYS OLD MITRE 10
By BRENDAN ARROW

UP IN FLAMES: Flames shoot out from the old Mitre 10 building on Bentinck Street, which was gutted by fire late yesterday afternoon. The building was already earmarked to be demolished.

Fire tore through the old Mitre 10 building on Bentinck Street late yesterday, completely gutting the building that had been scheduled for demolition as part of the new Bathurst Marketplace shopping centre development.
The roof of the inactive store erupted about 4.30pm, sending black plumes of smoke across the central business district.

At least 30 firefighters were called to the scene as hundreds of curious on-lookers, many with cameras and video recorders, flooded the IGA carpark and alleys surrounding the blaze trying to get a closer look.

Police eventually moved everyone on as concerns grew that the dark smoke may have contained asbestos or toxic chemicals.

Ambulance officers were on hand, however, no one succumbed to the smoke.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and particle masks sprayed the building from the outside to prevent the fire spreading to nearby businesses.

Backup crews arrived as the fire moved along the building, allowing officers to tackle the blaze from inside. However, they were forced to abandon their efforts to tackle the fire at its source when the intense heat and water combined to bring down the roof of the old building.

Almost an hour after the blaze began, firefighters appeared to have it under control.

Zone commander Superintendent Greg O’Connor said it was too early to say if the fire was suspicious, but he confirmed no one had been hurt.

“At 5.40pm firefighters received numerous triple-zero emergency calls and arrived on the scene to find the fire fully involved,” he said.

“There is still a thorough investigation to take place into the cause of the fire.

“Officers ... prevented the fire from spreading to nearby businesses.”

Stephanie Stocks from the Central West Care centre on Russell Street told the Advocate she had smelt smoke throughout the day, but each time she went outside there was nothing to see.

“We thought it must have been a cigarette butt,” she said.

“When we came out the last time we saw a small bit of smoke [coming from the building] and five seconds later, whoomph, there were just big columns of smoke coming out the roof.”

Ms Stocks said she was surprised by just how quickly the fire took hold.

“I’ve heard there may have been squatters living in the building,” she said.

“I’m sure no one was inside though, all I saw was a cat running out. It just took off pretty quickly.”

Country Energy workers on the scene said the fire could not have been started by an electrical fault as power had been cut to the building earlier in the week.

Bentinck Street was still closed between Russell and Howick Streets late yesterday as firefighters mopped up at the scene.

THE weekend’s flooding has been the first real test of Bathurst Regional Council’s levees on the Macquarie River.
No houses appear to have been inundated with flood water, and now the river is falling again.

It was a very different story more than a decade ago when houses close to the river were awash with flood water.

Council’s floodplain manager Darren Sturgiss said the river peaked at 5.68 metres at 4.50am on Saturday.

He said this was one metre below the 1998 flood peak, so while it was a good test for the levee system, it is not certain houses would have flooded anyway.

He added that a one in 100 year flood would peak at 6.9 metres.

“We are happy, but it wasn’t a full test. We still had another 1.3 metres to go before we hit the level they were designed for,” he said.

“However, without the levees Morrisset Street would have been impassable and people in Stanley and Havannah streets would have had significant water in their yards.”

Mr Sturgiss said there were a few concerns over the weekend for properties at Perthville and Georges Plains but the river started to drop again before it could become a real threat.

He said council’s flood pumps at Hope Street, Peel Street and at the showground were active all Friday night and a fair bit of Saturday.

Another pump in Gilmour Street did not need to be activated.

Mr Sturgiss said there were some levels of ponding inside the levee and council spent yesterday pumping that water out.

He said about 10 roads in the region were closed at the height of the flood activity.

Mr Sturgiss said that while the bureau was unable to predict exactly what will happen next as more rain rolls in, he said council is hopeful the impact on the region will not be too great.

“Saturday night we saw a few stars and we were very grateful for that,” he said.

One of the sour points for the community was the closure of the Great Western Highway on Friday due to the flooding of Raglan Creek – a familiar story for many.

Mr Sturgiss said council started work on the Raglan Creek overflow channel some time ago, however, the Roads and Maritime Services (formerly RTA) took over the project in conjunction with upgrades to the Great Western Highway.

It is still to approve the final design.

Mr Sturgiss said council has been proactive in purchasing the land to allow the channel to be built as a way of trying to hurry the project along.

Mainly 2 second exposures of the flames in our Chiminea on our back patio

The Somerville Collection is the lifetime work of Professor Warren Somerville and features some of the finest and rarest examples of minerals and fossils in the world. The specimens currently on display in the Museum represent about one quarter of the total Collection.

Highlights from the mineral collection include crystals from over 100 Australian mine sites, the world's largest rhodonite gem crystals, 2,000 million years old garnets, rainbow-coloured fluorite's from China, as well as diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and other gems from around the world.

Features of the fossil collection include Australia's only complete T.rex skeleton, Australia's largest collection of fossils in amber, fossil dinosaur eggs, some of the oldest fossils of early forms of life, and a large collection of Australia's unique opalised fossils.

This internationally significant collection is a unique educational resource.

A heavy for over Bathurst

Blair Athol was built in 1890 and many of the trees in the garden are over 100 years old.

Our local Scots School are holding their annual Highland Gathering & Country Fair

The City of Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in Australia. It was proclaimed a town in 1815 and, with the discovery of gold, experienced rapid growth in the 1850s and '60s.

The town was gazetted as a city in 1885. Bathurst has superb examples of early 1800's architecture with an abundance of heritage buildings. The main streets are a delightful mixture of old and new, with charming cast iron Victorian lamp-posts adorning busy shopping centres.

After the terrible fire which burnt the school to the ground, the Year 12 students had their grad ball in fine fettle, finishing a turbulent but nevertheless very rewarding year. Good luck guys!