Historic town hotel destroyed by fire in Lascelles
Working smoke alarms have saved the lives of four people who woke to their building engulfed in flames overnight at Lascelles.
CFA was called to the hotel fire on Henty Highway at 2.10am.
When firefighters arrived at the two-storey building it was well alight.
Due to issues with accessing water, several trucks were called to the scene.
CFA Commander Dennis Thomas said the four occupants in the building were able to escape safely.
“Smoke alarms save lives and that’s exactly what’s happened here overnight,” Dennis said.
“We would have arrived to a very different scene if this building didn’t have working smoke alarms.”
Dennis said the historic building was completely destroyed.
“This hotel was the local pub, post office and bottle shop to the town. It was the place locals went for dinner. This is a massive loss for the town and they’re devastated,” he said.
“The four occupants also lost everything.”
The local power company had to turn off the town’s power between 4am and 7am.
Victoria Police also closed the Sunraysia Highway which has since been reopened.
The fire was brought under control at 5.25am.
CFA had 11 vehicles on scene supported by FRV’s ladder platform which assisted greatly with extinguishing the fire.
The cause of the fire is not suspicious and will be investigated today.