By Kyra Gillespie
The Pakenham Hotel faces a repair bill of more than $150,000 following an arson attack.
A man delivering goods to a nearby cafe notified emergency services of smoke billowing from the Main Street hotel’s roof just before 1.30am on Wednesday 15 November.
Six fire trucks from Pakenham, Nar Nar Goon, Toomuc and Dandenong CFA brought the fire under control.
Detective Senior Constable Ange Butler of the Cardinia Criminal Investigation Unit said the upper level of the hotel suffered “significant damage” and that it was likely to cost more than $150,000 to repair.
Police are still investigating the incident but have said that the blaze was caused by arson.
Pakenham Hotel owner of 11 years Brendan Theobald described feeling “overwhelmed and disappointed” upon discovering the attack on his business.
“I’ve been in the hotel business for 30-odd years and I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before,” Mr Theobald said.
“We’ve experienced a couple of break-ins in recent months so the news wasn’t entirely shocking.
“After being targeted like we have I had a bit of a feeling that something was going to happen. We’re working closely with police to resolve the matter.”
Despite the damage, Mr Theobald is confident that business will go on as normal.
“Fortunately, the hotel is OK. Downstairs all looks the same.
“It was mainly the rooms upstairs and we don’t use those anyway.
“The main thing is, the hotel is alright. We’ll just need a couple of days to get back on track.”
CFA Operations Officer Andrew Turner said 35 firefighters brought the fire under control within 20 minutes.
He said there was “extensive damage” to a room on the second floor and hallway.
“We’ve deemed it as suspicious and forensic and our fire investigation people are working through that.
“The fire was contained to the second floor of the premises with significant damage to one room and the hallway on the second floor.”
Mr Turner said there was no threat to neighbouring buildings, adding “it was all contained in the area of origin on the second level of the premises”.
He said when crews arrived on scene, smoke was seen “logging throughout the entire building”.
“Due to a quick response the fire was able to be contained rapidly and all the crews worked well together.
“We’re really keen to highlight this was a job that was undertaken by both career firefighters and volunteer firefighters working together.”
Any information to Crime Stoppers at crimestoppersvic.com.au.
