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Fire authorities have doused a small blaze that broke out in the former Saint John’s orphanage in Mundy Street.
Units were called to the deteriorated structure just before 5pm Thursday.
NSW Fire and Rescue Captain Chris Brassel said it broke out on the top floor of the double-storey building’s southern section.
“We don’t know the exact point of origin but there was smoke billowing out of the windows when we arrived. At this point it doesn’t seem too dramatic,” he said at the scene.
Two Goulburn Fire and Rescue units and two Rural Fire Service comprising 14 personnel were on scene. Captain Brassel said there was no need to call further resources.
“The building is in a pretty disused state so we’re not going to compromise anyone’s safety by putting a ladder against the wall or anyone inside,” he told The Post.
Instead, crews tackled the outbreak by spraying water through windows. It was fully doused by 7pm.
Captain Brassel said the building’s “derelict state” was a continuing concern. The old orphanage caught fire four times in 2016, three of those within the space of two weeks last November.
Following these outbreaks, owner John Ferrara was ordered by Goulburn Mulwaree Council to secure the building to prevent further break and entry.
“The building has been secured by a construction fence so nobody should actually be getting in there,” Captain Brassel said on Thursday.
“It has been one of those things that we can only keep turning up to and putting the fire out.”
The fire came soon after a heavy storm struck Goulburn and district. Captain Brassel said it was unlikely a lightning strike sparked the outbreak because it was confined inside the building.
The storm was thought to have knocked out electricity at 4.40pm in a large part of South Goulburn.
An Essential Energy spokeswoman said 1137 customers were affected.
“Network protection equipment activated to isolate supply to the area around after detecting a fault on the high voltage electricity network,” she said.
“Local crews completed fault finding on the network, before supply was safely restored to all customers by 5.40pm.”
Crews are also responding to a number of smaller and individual outages in Goulburn caused by the storm.
Customers can call Essential Energy on 13 20 80 for information or updates about outages.
