UPDATE: No one injured in weekend fire at Batemans Bay hotel as part of structure caves in

UPDATEd, 6pm: Resident Craig Moungaloa said he first heard sirens for the Batemans Bay hotel fire late on Sunday afternoon.

“I live right next to the bridge, and I thought there had been an accident or something like that”, he said. “But I looked outside and I saw this smoke, and it was really thick”.

Mr Moungaloa initially presumed he was seeing a house fire, before realising the Bay Waters Hotel was alight.

“When I looked over, I saw smoke billowing,” he said.”There were flames coming out of one of the back gables of the roof.””I walked outside and I could still hear all these sirens,” he said.

Mr Moungaloa passed by the site on his way to work on Monday (26 June), and saw damage to the building’s roof.

“At the front of the building, it was all caved in – there was a massive hole – from where the fire had been.”There were two fire brigade trucks there, still cleaning up the mess – it looked like they’d been there all night.

“It looks like nobody is there now, there’s no residents or anybody there, it seems,” he told About Regional.

2.30pm: No injuries have been reported after a fire in a Batemans Bay hotel was contained by firefighters.

A spokesperson for Fire and Rescue NSW told About Regional the fire broke out at the Bay Waters Hotel shortly before 5 pm on Sunday (25 June).

“At 4:42 pm, Fire and Rescue were notified of a building fire via a triple zero call,” they said.

“Fire and Rescue responded with six fire trucks.

“Upon arrival, crews observed a two-story building with eight units, with a fire on the second level.”

According to the spokesperson, the building had been evacuated before the arrival of Fire and Rescue units, and there were no injuries reported.

On arrival, firefighters began to battle the blaze.

“Fire and Rescue commenced an offensive attack on the fire with two crews, confining the fire to the roof space.

“The fire was extinguished at 5:19 pm,” the spokesperson said.

The Fire and Rescue spokesperson said an exclusion zone had been established on the second floor of the hotel and an investigation with fire investigators and NSW Police had been launched.

“I’m not aware of any suspicious nature.”

“It’s just routine that we conduct an investigation to determine the cause,” they said.

A NSW Police spokesperson said the investigation would also seek to find where the blaze began.

“The fire is not being treated as suspicious at this stage,” the spokesperson said.