By Mikayla van Loon
A suspicious fire, which left a section of the grandstand at Lilydale Recreation Reserve unusable, was not unexpected after months of damage and vandalism.
At around 5.30am on Wednesday 12 February, Lilydale CFA Brigade firefighters were paged to the blaze in the grandstand, suspected to have been called in by a passing train driver.
The brigades First Lieutenant Ron Haines said the fire was “well alight” when the responders arrived within five minutes of getting the call.
“It did manage to start in the floorboards. It spread to the chairs in this grandstand, then it went up into the part of the roof,” he said.
“We were able to contain the fire very, very quickly and we contained the fire to approximately an area of five by five metres, plus there must have been about 30 chairs damaged, and a small portion of the roof was scorched by fire.
“It was a very quick save by the fire brigade backed up by CFA Chirnside Park and also CFA Mooroolbark.”
With no one around and no evidence of how the fire started, the CFA called police identifying the fire as suspicious.
A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed “no one was injured” and “an investigation into the circumstances is underway”.
Lilydale Cricket Club president Steve Oxley said unfortunately “we’ve been preempting the bad news” with a group of young people hanging around, using the grandstand as a place to gather.
“For weeks now, it’s been coming. They’ve been breaking the seats, leaving a stack of debris up there, having copious amounts of drugs, and with no real consequence, because there’s not much we can do but talk to the police,” he said.
“We get the PSOs over there and the police themselves but for the police, there’s not much they can do which leaves us in a terrible predicament.”
First seen using the grandstand at the start of football season last year, Lilydale Football Club president Anthony Simmons said the activity picked up throughout summer and the school holidays.
“They have no respect for the building or the facilities. Graffiti sprouts as soon as they start hanging around there,” he said.
The grandstand, built in 1923 and fitted out with seats acquired by the two clubs from the MCG’s southern stand, was the main viewing area, as well as housing the visitor and umpire change rooms underneath.
“(The fire was) directly above the shower area for the visitor rooms…whether or not the fire damaged the roof structure, we’re not sure but the water that was used to put the fire is possibly going to do some damage,” Mr Simmons said.
“It’s an old building, I’d be very surprised if there’s not some damage associated with that whole process.”
As a Yarra Ranges Council managed and owned building, the structural assessment falls to its engineers who have since carried out make-safe works.
“The site has now been cleaned, and temporary fencing erected. The tiered timber steps will be replaced over the coming days, however, some of the seating was not able to be saved. The seats that were salvaged have been relocated,” a spokesperson said.
Mr Oxley said however, with approaching cricket finals and Lilydale a potential host of these matches, as well as the position of the training nets, it jeopardises both viewers and players.
“The premier grade cricket around the eastern suburbs is the RDCA Trollope Shield, and we’re on top of the ladder. So we would have had a packed grandstand there,” he said.
“The damage has impacted the safety of any players who train around the back of the grandstand because we’ve got our nets there.
“So the state of the grandstand, obviously, is now going to come into question. The roof is definitely unsafe, it’s been burnt, and the two side walls.
“So if the walls become classed as unsafe, and obviously anything within the vicinity, I don’t know what their safety rules are going to be, but they’re going to cordon off our nets, and then we’re going to be in trouble.”
Aside from the fire, Mr Simmons told Star Mail late on Wednesday that the new coaches box, paid for and installed by the club’s, had also been damaged after someone had appeared to gain access and “bent the door on its hinges” from the force.
Trying to work with the young people to come up with a solution, Mr Oxley said a couple of Saturdays ago he approached them to chat, where they said “we just need a space we can sit”.
“That didn’t work because they burned the place down,” he said.
“If I think about it, they’ve just done themselves an injustice because now, they’re not going to be able to go up there at all and the police will crack down.”
This fire has reignited calls from both Mr Oxley and Mr Simmons for new club and community facilities that were not accessible to the public like the grandstand is.
“We’d like to see the place turned into something like what Mount Evelyn now has or what Montrose has, where it’s locked up, we’ve got a viewing facility that’s not accessible to the general public,” Mr Simmons said.
“We’ve been calling out for new club rooms for a long time where we’ve moved up the scale, down the scale. We don’t really know what the protocol is, but other clubs locally to us are getting the funding. Something like this makes it prevalent and only shows how much we really need something there,” Mr Oxley said.
Like opening a can of worms, both presidents said there were countless issues with the current facilities, like having no air conditioning nor suitable change rooms for the female players.
Although the ground itself has been repaired and maintained by the council to a standard that makes it one of the best, with barely up to scratch facilities, Mr Oxley asked why would parents choose Lilydale for their child based on the current clubrooms.
“It all starts with juniors. We get the juniors looking at the club room saying, ‘we’re not going to play at that club’, or ‘we’ll go to the next big thing’ and ‘who’s giving us the best facilities’. That’s how clubs fail. 1864 we started and it’d be sad to see a club like ours go down the gurgler,” he said.
“There’s nostalgia there, and there’s a heart, you can feel it but if you’re a parent of a child these days, and you look at the change rooms you’d think, ‘I’m not going to send my kids into a dungeon’, it’s not a good look.”
Anyone who witnessed the incident, has CCTV/dashcam footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
