This week has ended with the Esperance Goldfields Surf Life Saving Club more than $740,000 better off — but it could have all been a disaster.
The club nearly went up in flames on Wednesday, with a bushfire “licking” the structure and stopping only a metre away after firefighters intervened.
A DFES spokesperson said a call was received at 5.30am on Wednesday, with the fire escalating at 8.30am before being contained but not controlled by 1pm.
The spokesperson said the fire was declared inactive by 5.45pm. It began when a controlled burn area reignited.
Club present Kelly Buttle told the Kalgoorlie Miner a reduction burn had been held in the area for some weeks, but the wind and warmth created a flare-up on Wednesday.
“It licked it (the club) practically; if they didn’t deploy a unit to the club, it’d be up in smoke, it’d be all gone. But they got the fireys to the club, emergency vehicles everywhere, they were amazing,” she said.
“The building and the little generator shed and the nipper shed is all still standing and it’s black. It’s like the moon around it, just there, a metre away, it’s all black.”
Ms Buttle said it would have been “devastating to the whole community” if the clubhouse had been swallowed by the flames as it was used every day, with locals swimming on the beach and showering at the club.
Just two days before the fire, she had been told Lotterywest had awarded the club $742,000 to refurbish the building, which was built in 1977.
“So Monday I’m jumping up and down on the balcony (with WA Labor member for the Agricultural Region) Shelley Payne celebrating the grant and then Wednesday I’ve been watching this smoke go up thinking ‘what’s happening?’,” Ms Buttle said.
She said she applied for both the Lotterywest grant and a grant from the Department of Sport, Recreation and Cultural Industries for $102,000 in August last year.
“When I submitted the application, (Lotterywest) said they will wait to hear back from the Department of Sport and Rec,” Ms Buttle said.
After finding out they were successful for the State Government grant in February, Lotterywest wanted a quantity surveyor to reassess the costings to ensure they were accurate before giving Ms Buttle a phone call on Monday to confirm the grant had been given.
“She said ‘I’ve got really good news, the Premier’s signed off on it’ and I’m like ‘oh my God, this is amazing’,” she said.
Ms Buttle said the grant was for clubhouse upgrades but she was still chasing funds for the storage shed.
“We’ve got a big refurbish happening … we’ve got a lift to go in for disability, we need our changerooms upgraded, we need new carpet, we need new windows, we need the balcony upgraded, we need an additional universal access … to get it up to 2023 standards … then we can also offer it to the community,” she said.
Ms Buttle also thanked the Shire of Esperance for its support, saying the surf club was its main priority and it had made a “big difference” in receiving the funding.
Shire of Esperance president Ian Mickel told the Kalgoorlie Miner there had been some controlled burning northwest of the club earlier in the week.
“There must have been some embers there within that fire ground with that very, very strong winds we had during the night anyway, it flared up at about five o’clock in the morning,” he said.
Cr Mickel said once it it was realised the fire was heading towards the club, all resources were put into making sure it and other structures were protected.
“Excellent job done by our volunteer firefighters and all the other people that were involved; they were able to basically save the building. There was a little bit of external damage but overall quite minor compared to what it would have been if the big effort wasn’t put in, I’d say,” he said.
“I just want to put emphasis on the great work done by our volunteers. They always assist and they do such a good job in regards to emergency situations and bushfires are one of those emergency situations.”