Emergency call saves hotel from disaster

By Tim Howard

A quick-thinking cleaner has saved an iconic Grafton watering hole from serious damage says Grafton Fire and Rescue captain Garry Reardon.
The cleaner at The Village Green Hotel was working early on Friday morning when he noticed smoke coming from the kitchen around 6am.
He opened the door but was left reeling when a column of smoked billowed from the room.
He called Triple-0 which alerted fire, police and ambulance services to attend the hotel.

Grafton Fire and Rescue personnel in breathing apparatus give the all clear to staff after removing the source of the emergency, a crate of smouldering cleaning cloths, from the building.

The cleaner told emergency services he had dumped a load of washed cleaning cloths into a clothes dryer then put the hot, dried items into a milk crate on a bench.
Mr Reardon said it appeared there was enough oil still in the cloth for them to be combustible and they spontaneously ignited.
“It was really lucky the smoke was spotted early,” he said. “If they had been allowed to go another 20 or 30 minutes there would have been flames, which could have created a real problem.”
Mr Reardon said the hot material from the drier most likely created an exothermic reaction which allowed heat to build up until it reached ignition point.
“The presence of cooking oil in the cloth would only have accelerated this process,” he said.
A manager at the hotel, Mark Knott, was also at the scene.
He said there had been no fault with what the staff had done.
“We’ve been doing the same thing every day for 20 years and not had any problems,” he said.
“It’s something we’re going to look at and we’ll have to make some changes.”
Mr Reardon said it was a reminder to anyone that the rag you use to polish or clean something could retain some chemicals that make it potentially flammable.

Grafton Fire and Rescue personnel hose down the smouldering rags responsible for the call out.

“In this case the message to the staff is not to pile cleaning cloths together after taking them from the drier, but spread them out to let the heat escape,” he said.
Two Grafton Fire and Rescue trucks attended, plus ambulance and police.
Fireman carried the partially melted crate contained the still-smouldering material and played a hose on it for a few seconds.
There was no significant damage to the building and Mr Reardon told hotel management they could trade as normal.