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Bella gets back on its feet

Bella gets back on its feet
Sean Car

Following an unfortunate flooding incident that forced 161 residents and hotel guests to evacuate Bella Apartments on May 27, the building’s manager said he was incredibly proud of how his team had handled the crisis.

Building manager Cameron Jeffery spoke to Southbank Local News in the aftermath of the event, which saw a man open fire hydrants that caused thousands of litres of water to pour down the stairwells.

However, the 27-year-old Tarralgon man, a friend of a resident, did not open 18 fire hydrants and did not barricade himself in the ground floor office, as was reported in the mainstream media.

Mr Jeffery said that the man had first flooded an apartment on the 18th floor before opening four first hydrants on floors 18, 14, 9 and 1. The incident occurred at around 9.15pm and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) was immediate in its response.

Fire crews arrived to water pouring out of the front door and soon found the man on an upper level and escorted him to the ground floor office under guard until police and ambulance arrived at the scene. He was later arrested and taken to hospital for assessment. No charges have yet been laid.

Mr Jeffery said, despite the inconvenience and an obvious threat to safety posed to hundreds of guests, residents and staff, very little damage was caused.

“Thankfully 99 per cent of the water was contained in the stairwell so it didn’t breach out into the carpeted areas,” he said. “There were three levels where water did go out but the impact was very minimal.”

“There’s no damage to any apartments or to anyone’s personal property. All resident rooms are fine.”

Apart from one contractor sustaining minor injuries attempting to fix one of the fire hoses, no one was injured. At the time of speaking to Southbank Local News, three days after the incident, the building remained closed to guests and residents while fire doors were replaced and the building’s lift, fire and electrical systems were all fully audited.

Mr Jeffery applauded the work of emergency services, his staff and the local community, as all 161 in the building on the night were relocated to neighbouring hotels at Crown, Aria and Oaks.

“We relocated everyone,” he said. “Obviously I work in the hotel industry so I know all the hotels and literally rang everyone. The best was Crown. They really helped us out.”

“It was a Sunday night in May so most hotels are half empty. We put half of our guests at Aria and Oaks really helped us out as well. Everyone pitched in which was really good.”

By the time our June edition went to print, operations at the building had returned to normal and Mr Jeffery said management had undertaken a comprehensive review to ensure such an incident couldn’t occur again.

“It’s a really good experience for other hotels and buildings as well so we’re talking to the fire brigade as well as the council about what safety measures can be put in place,” Mr Jeffery said.

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