Bairnsdale woke to the sounds of emergency service sirens on Friday, June 28, as popular local eatery and family-run business, Hendo’ s Café, was up in flames.
An emotional café owner, Matt Henderson, said that he will rebuild after being in business for 13 years.
“We will rebuild after the dust settles,” he said.
“We will weather the storm and get back into it, whether that be there or in another location.
“There’s a lot to think of because we have our food trucks as well, there’s a lot to digest in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
Matt said that the efforts of the fire brigades involved was nothing more than amazing.
“The response time was incredible and I couldn’t fault them,” Matt said.
“Some guys came down from Traralgon and Morwell as well.
“I think the Bairnsdale Fire Brigade were there in about three minutes of the call and especially at that time in the morning you wouldn’t expect that quick of rate during the middle of the day when everybody is up let alone sound asleep in bed.”
The fire started around 3.30am and was brought under control around 6am.
Bairnsdale Fire Brigade Captain, Aaron Lee, said that the cause of the blaze was undetermined.
“We had 13 appliances at the scene,” Captain Lee said.
“There were two specialist appliances from Traralgon and Morwell and the rest were all local brigades.
“There was a little bit of water damage to an joining shop (Ausure Insurance Brokers) and the rest of the damage was contained to the building itself.
“The building itself has suffered a fair bit of structural collapse due to the fire.
“It took as a few hours to get the fire under control and with the lanes being shut (on the Princes Highway) everyone was really good in cooperating.
“Everything went really smoothly in terms of what we could do and when we got there the building was fairly enveloped.
“All in all everything went really well.”
Main Street was closed with traffic diverged and was reopened to one lane mid Friday morning.
PICTURED: Hendo’s café went up in flames in early hours of Friday morning. An emotional café owner, Matt Henderson, said that he will re- build after being in business for 13 years.
