By JESSE GRAHAM
AN OLINDA restaurant has risen from the ashes after tea towels caught fire and caused thousands of dollars in damage last month.
A combination of hot, freshly tumble-dried tea towels – combined with a warm room and organic oil – are believed to have caused a spontaneous combustion in The Ivy’s bar on 29 May.
Owner Mark Hurren sat down with the Mail last week to talk about his experience with the fires, and how the business had coped since the disaster.
He said a former employee of the restaurant, who called Mr Hurren to tell him that “The Ivy is on fire”, set off the alarm bells.
Rushing down to the scene, Mr Hurren was able to use a fire extinguisher through a window, but CFA crews were able to put it out.
Sassafras, Monbulk, Kallista and Olinda crews all attended the fire, using breathing apparatus to take down the small fire.
Once the smoke had cleared, and he was able to take the time to assess the damage, Mr Hurren said the estimated repair bill would be about $50,000.
He said that much of the actual damage was the result of smoke – which destroyed wine labels – and fire extinguisher chemicals which damaged appliances.
“Due to the fire extinguisher that we used – the dry chemical gets into a lot of the machinery,” he said.
“The smoke, it gets into everything.
“As far as the building goes, you can clean it and paint it.”
But it was a different story in relation to some fittings and knick-knacks.
“What we could clean, we cleaned, but a lot of it, we had to throw out.”
With his source of income out of action for the time being, Mr Hurren quickly got to work organising the revival of the business.
He set a goal of one week to have The Ivy grow out of the ashes, wih the doors open for the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Mr Hurren said staff were also concerned after the fire because a lengthy closure could have meant that staff would have to look elsewhere for jobs.
“When my insurance assessor first came in and saw the damage, and I said that I wanted to be open within a week, she looked at me like I was crazy,” he said.
“(Insurance) doesn’t pay my staff – if it is closed for too long, what do my staff do? They need an income.”
Doubts aside, the business was able to re-open for the long weekend as planned.
However, Mr Hurren said the restaurant had been hindered by rumours the building had burnt to the ground.
He said several people who had made bookings were surprised after not showing up for their reservations and being informed that the venue was still standing.
“We had one booking on the Sunday night (9 June), for 20 people – I got one of my waitresses to call on the Friday, when we re-opened, to explain to them that we did have a fire, and that we were running again as normal,” Mr Hurren said.
“Between the Friday night and Sunday, she (the booking organiser) had spoken to someone else who told them the place had burned down.
“So, when I got one of my girls to ring them at 7.30pm – they were due at 7pm – to see if they were still coming, they said ‘Oh no, we heard the place burned down yesterday’.”
Mr Hurren is in good spirits after the ordeal but warned other business owners to be wary of fire risks, and to make sure materials – such as tea towels – were cool before being put away.
