Fire and large plumes of black smoke were seen billowing from the old Workers Club at Kurri Kurri as around 50 firefighters battled a blaze there Monday afternoon.
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Emergency services were called to the scene around 3.15pm, where the nearby medical centre and other businesses had been evacuated as the blaze took hold in the disused building on Lang Street.
NSW Ambulance crews were also on the scene as a precaution, though there have been no reports of injury.
Firefighters were confronted with extreme fire activity on arrival, a spokesperson for the NSW Fire Brigade said, and were initially unable to gain access to the building owing to the severity of the blaze but were said to have contained the damage the abandoned structure.
Specialist Hazmat crews were said to be monitoring air quality and water run-off and the state's Environmental Protection Agency had been notified, the Fire Brigade said in a statement.
A police spokesperson said an exclusion zone had been put in place around the fire and residents have been urged to avoid the area.
It is the second time in as many years that the former club has been burned, after a fire broke out there in the evening hours of March 3 last year.
The Workers Club first opened in 1955 and was closed in 2017. Administrator Greg Russell said at the time that it was a difficult decision to close the Kurri club but it was no longer feasible for it to remain open.
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Simon McCarthy
Simon McCarthy is a journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes news and features, and produces video and multimedia, for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine. He contributes regularly to the Newcastle Herald’s daily Topics column, and is the co-creator and producer of the Toohey’s News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
Simon McCarthy is a journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes news and features, and produces video and multimedia, for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine. He contributes regularly to the Newcastle Herald’s daily Topics column, and is the co-creator and producer of the Toohey’s News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
