Punters in Melbourne are likely counting themselves lucky right now, after a fire at beloved venue 170 Russell caused an evacuation on Saturday night.
As The Age reports, hundreds of patrons had flocked to Melbourne’s 170 Russell (also referred to as Billboard) on Saturday night for a sold-out Bingo Loco event.
At around 10pm though, former triple j presenter and host Alex Dyson was forced to act as the bearer of bad news, informing attendees of a “little fire” in the rear of the venue which necessitated their quick evacuation.
“He went from party to professional in, like, a second flat, my friends and I got out, like, ASAP within, like, five minutes of spotting the fire and letting someone know,” attendee Andrea explained to The Age.
“The only real concern was about people who were too drunk to take it seriously.”
Check out footage of the incident at:
https://twitter.com/aaaaerdna/status/1167771529595109376
Roughly 25 firefighters responded to the fire, and took about half an hour to control the blaze. At this stage, the origin of the fire is unknown, but is said to have started near the rear of the stage before spreading to the roof of the venue.
Unfortunately, the damage caused by the fire has meant that the venue won’t be holding any events for a few days, with an appearance by Korean musical outfit Dreamcatcher forced to be cancelled last night.
“We’ve got a show on Tuesday night and we’re hoping at this point we will have the venue up and running by then,” explained the 170 Russell entertainment manager Ben Thompson.
“It’s a little hard to tell the extent of the damage, but it looks like predominantly water damage as opposed to fire damage.
“We’re extremely glad people were able to evacuate safely and no one was hurt,” he added. “It happened at the end of an event. People were evacuated and no one was hurt – and that’s the most important thing, the safety of our patrons.”
Although no patrons suffered any major injuries, some have been affected by smoke inhalation, though its extent is not believed to be serious.
Check out Big Smoke performing ‘Lately’ at 170 Russell:
