“I don’t believe they have to knock any components down of the brick area, but because it is timber, it’s unlikely that area will be able to be repaired. They will probably have to replace that section.”
Melbourne Racing Club chairman John Kanga said the fire-affected stand – which is heritage-listed – adjoins the main grandstand.
“I’m not an engineer, but structurally it looks – from the debrief from the fire brigades – like it’s OK. But there’s a lot of smoke and water damage,” Kanga said.
He said the stand was insured and was adamant it would be rebuilt to what it was, regardless of the damage on Tuesday.
Kanga told SEN Track his “biggest concern” was smoke damage in the main grandstand. He said the club was trying to determine if Wednesday’s race meet at Caulfield Heath could go ahead.
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“The track hasn’t been affected. The jockey facilities haven’t been affected. It’s more just damage to the communication systems. We just don’t know at the moment,” Kanga said at about 9am.
“It looked worse when I first got here. It looked like both grandstands were up. It didn’t look great, but thank god we’ve got professional Fire Rescue Victoria.
FRV said the response was escalated to third-alarm level, but was contained to the centre of the grandstand and deemed under control at 7.09am.
A community advice message was issued for the fire and smoke, but Smith said no horses or people were hurt.
“There were probably a few community members milling around, a few workers arriving on scene, but thankfully, no impact to the community doing exercise, and definitely no horses, which was great news,” Smith said.
A VicEmergency warning showed at least 11 vehicles responded to the incident.
An advice message initially covered the suburbs of Ashburton, Carnegie, Caulfield, Caulfield East, Caulfield North, Caulfield South, Glen Huntly, Glen Iris, Malvern, Malvern East, Murrumbeena and Ormond.
It was reduced to a community information notice for Caulfield East and Caulfield North at about 8.30am.
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