SUMMER HOLIDAY
THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 25 #30 Tuesday, January 4, 2011 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 21,000 copies every week
PITHY STRAPS ARE SO LAST YEAR
Bruns sends in the clowns
Fire destroys house on Bangalow Road Story & photo Victoria Cosford
Fire gutted a wooden house in Bangalow Road, Byron Bay, early on Wednesday morning. Despite recent torrential downpours flooding the Shire over Christmas, ‘the whole house was burnt down’, according to Andrew Hill, Bangalow-based captain of the NSW Fire Brigade. He told The Echo that the call had come around 5.45 am. This is the third fire in the Shire in the past few weeks, following the devastation of two businesses in Bangalow and an air-conditioning unit catching alight in Suffolk Park. There were no casualties, although according to Inspector for NSW Fire The McGregor Family Carnival’s home is Banner Park, which carnival operator Glenn McGregor’s research shows is Brigades and Duty Commander for the oldest carnival site in the country. The fun begins each evening at 6.30pm an will run through the Fish ‘n’ Chips the Northern Rivers Greg Reid, eight festival and continue until Saturday January 22. One of the many highlights being the fireworks this Saturday evenpeople were occupying the house at ing after 8.30pm. Photo Jeff Dawson. the time of the fire. ‘They were backpackers and they self-evacuated,’ he said. ‘Wooden houses burn well – this one was 80 – 90 years old, and there’s a lot of ren Steel said that there was a greater sive behaviour.’ fuel load.’ Eve Jeffery than usual police presence in both Inspector Steel said that there were He said that it had taken one and If New Year’s Eve celebrations are any- Brunswick Heads and Byron Bay and also number of noise complaints from a half hours to bring the fire under control. Fire brigades from Byron thing to go by, the Byron Shire is in that overall it was a pleasing night in the camping grounds. Brunswick Heads reportedly had for a cruisy year as the click over to both towns. ‘We had a significant number of a quieter night than in the past, 2011 was celebrated in a relatively well police in the area and there were not though rumours of the sexual asbehaved and orderly fashion. sault of a young girl on Torakina Though Council restrictions were many occurrences,’ he said. ‘There were about 15,000 people in beach were circulating in Brunswick put in place to stamp out alcohol intake in public areas, according to po- Byron Bay. We arrested six people for Heads on Sunday morning. When minor assault incidents and 17 people The Echo contacted police, they said lice, revellers were well intoxicated. Tweed-Byron LAC Inspector Dar- were issued infringements for offen- they had no record of any such incident in he area. According to police, Saturday evening was fuelled with plenty of alcohol but most took the sensible attitude toA petrol tanker rolled and exploded, fought the blaze. ward driving, with only three drivers killing its driver on the Pacific HighInvestigations are continuing and being charged with PCA (Prescribed way near Tintenbar, about 10 kilo- police will prepare a report for the Concentration of Alcohol) offences, metres north of Ballina on Friday. Coroner. relatively few for a night that is tradiThe highway was closed for at least Police from Richmond Local Area tionally busy. 16 hours as a result. Police attended Command are appealing for witnessThey also said that and apart from the scene and an exclusion zone was es to contact Ballina Police via Crime local congestion, there were no put in place while NSW Fire Brigades Stoppers on 1800 333 000. accidents.
Crowds are up but it’s a quiet NYE
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Bay and Bangalow had set up hose lines to prevent the fire from spreading to the surrounding houses and causing damage. Mr Reid commended the brigades on the great job they did. ‘They protected the houses on all three sides with the building collapsing in the process. They had to be very wary of that, and no-one got hurt.’ On hand too was the Hazmat crew from Goonellabah to check the levels of asbestos. ‘The whole house was riddled with asbestos,’ Mr Hill told The Echo, ‘but there’s been so much water and it was all dampened, so there’s no danger to the public.’ A resident of the house told The Echo, ‘We woke at 5am and found a wall of fire engulfing the front of the house which within minutes had filled the rooms with smoke. So began the anxious wait for the fire brigade who were able to eventually quell the 15 metre flames that destroyed the 85year-old cottage.’ Cause of the fire was unknown. North-bound traffic was still being deviated by midday as investigations continued.
Tanker explodes killing driver
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