A fire at the Caulfield racecourse in Melbourne has gutted the Norman Robinson grandstand. The extent of the damage is being assessed and police say it is suspicious.
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00:00There's a huge amount of damage after a fire broke out here at the Caulfield Racecourse
00:08at around 6.20 this morning.
00:11It sparked a huge response from firefighters, 17 fire trucks and more than 70 firefighters
00:17came straight down to put out the blaze.
00:20Luckily, that was all under control in under an hour.
00:23By 7.10 it was all under control, but the extent of the damage is now being realised
00:29as quite significant.
00:31As you mentioned, the Norman Robinson Grandstand was where the fire started.
00:35The authorities arrived to see the flames coming out there and that grandstand was built
00:42in 1960 and it's a very historic area.
00:46Inside it is a bar that has plenty of significance for the Victorian racing community.
00:52So more than just physical damage for sure for the Victorians who come down here quite
00:58regularly.
00:59Tomorrow was meant to be the first race of the season here at the Caulfield Racecourse.
01:04There are some plans to maybe move that to Mornington Peninsula, to a racecourse there.
01:10But there's also been some water damage as well to the restaurants below after the sprinklers
01:15went off this morning.
01:16We spoke with the Fire Rescue Victoria incident controller earlier this morning.
01:21Here's what he had to say.
01:23We're starting to reduce our footprint.
01:25We'll be at a point now.
01:26We'll get the structural engineers to have a look and the health officer to have a look
01:29because there's been a bit of water damage with some of the restaurants underneath.
01:32And we'll be at a point where we'll look to hand over to Victoria Police to complete their
01:37investigation.
01:38So as far as the community is concerned, there's no issues for them.
01:41There was a bit of smoke this morning.
01:42We sent out an advice message to the community, let them know there was smoke in the area.
01:46There is a lot of residents around here, but thankfully the wind wasn't significant so
01:50it didn't really impact them as much.
01:52Well Gemma, luckily there were no injuries and everyone was safely evacuated at the time
01:57of the fire.
01:58Now it's in the hands of Victoria Police who have set up a crime scene and they're deeming
02:02the fire as suspicious.
02:04So an investigation is now underway to try and determine what caused this very significant
02:09blaze.