Police are asking for information about a fire at Colac South West Primary School which melted garbage bins and damaged a garden shed. Staff saw people on school property at the time of Tuesday night’s shed fire.
A SUSPICIOUS fire at Colac South West Primary School destroyed the school’s garbage bins and damaged a garden shed this week.
Police are investigating the fire after staff members saw people on school grounds when the fire happened 8:20pm Tuesday.
The school’s principal Ralph Shaw said he was relieved the fire failed to cause more damage.
“It’s absolutely disappointing and it had the potential to do considerable damage,” Mr Shaw said.
“It was just lucky at the time there were some staff members still at the school and saw when it happened and saw the people involved and were able to contact the fire authorities quickly,” he said.
Mr Shaw said repairing the shed and replacing the bins “won’t happen quickly that’s for sure”.
“The shed is where we store the rubbish bins at the end of the day, there would have been six or eight in there at the time,” he said.
“The garbage bins are no more, they are just melted shapes now and the shed probably needs to be pulled down and rebuilt, so it’s probably going to cost a couple of thousand dollars.
“It’s incredibly inconvenient and not something we want to have to worry about.”
Colac detective Jonas Todd told the Colac Herald on Wednesday that offenders hadn’t used petrol to start the fire and police were unsure how the fire started.
“Police are investigating the circumstances and we’re calling on anyone that might have some information.”
Mr Shaw said he hoped people with information would speak to the police.
“The school is open to everybody in the community and it is a community asset, we want the community to look after it,” he said.
“We want to make sure it remains open and in the community.”
People with information about the fire should contact Colac police on 5230 0000 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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