Arson claims sports clubrooms

POLICE suspected arson when a fire destroyed football and cricket clubrooms at the Hallam sports complex in Frawley Road, leaving only a shell of the building, burning irreplaceable memorabilia, and causing $40,000 damage.
Premiership flags, honour boards, and football jumpers went up in flames as the fire took hold at 9.30pm on a Tuesday.
Residents had just seven years earlier built an extension, at a cost of $8000, a seemingly small sum compared to today’s building costs but no small sum in those days.
Brigades from Doveton and Dandenong took 25 minutes to contain the fire as the Hallam Neighbourhood Watch zone leader Adrian Burgers, club booking secretary Jim Duggan, and Hallam Recreation Reserve Committee secretary Ian Hansen looked on while part of their recreational facility burned.
Fireman wore masks to prevent smoke inhalation as they entered the scorching, single-storey building.
Mr Hansen told the News at the time that the heat was so intense the windows appeared to have been blown out, the steel girders distorted, and the aluminium frames melted.
Untouched by the flames and smoke were the canteen, toilets, umpires change rooms, and showers, the News reported.
After State Emergency Service personnel ruled out electrical and gas fault, police suspected the fire was deliberately lit. Other evidence during the investigations included a broken window.