Uni fire suspicious

VANDALS caused up to $50,000 of damage to La Trobe University’s Phoenix Centre on Tuesday night, deliberately setting fire to the building.CFA senior station officer Craig Houlahan said 15 firefighters were called to contain a blaze at the university’s Osborne Street campus at 10.22pm.Mr Houlahan said two brigades with four appliances arrived at the scene at 10.22pm to find one of the building’s corridors and part of its roof alight.“Initial firefighters in attendance, with a hose line, were able to contain the fire to this room and ventilate it,” he said.“The fire was brought under control at 10.42pm.”Acting Sergeant Robert Brown said the police were treating the fire as an act of vandalism.He said the fire was deliberately started in a corridor of the building that was externally accessible.“It was started by a flammable liquid,” he said.Acting Sergeant Brown said there were no suspects, but urged anyone with information to contact police.Yesterday, La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus executive director Andrew Skewes said the corridor had been fenced off.“The site has been secured with fencing and no disruption to residences or nearby lecture rooms is expected,” he said.“No evacuation was needed when the fire occurred as no one was in the area. Damage is estimated at $40,000 to $50,000.”Mr Skewes said a fire alarm had been set off at the university earlier in the evening on Tuesday, but in another part of the campus.“The break-glass alarm was set off four hours earlier on a separate building than the fire. The CFA attended both incidents, which appear to be unrelated,” he said.