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Damage estimated at tens of thousands of dollars has been caused by a fire at the Floreat Forum shopping centre.
Fire and Emergency Services say people had to be evacuated but no one was injured in the blaze about 8:00 pm last night.
It took firefighters about half an hour to put the fire out.
Fire and Emergency Services say the cause of the fire is still being investigated but it does not look suspicious.
Contaminated water from a fire at a frozen food factory at Wingfield has been flowing into wetlands in northern Adelaide.
The fire at Rand Refrigerated Logistics is estimated to have left a damage bill of up to $10 million.
The company has moved to offices nearby and says frozen food supplies to supermarkets will not be disrupted despite the loss of stock.
Clive Jenkins from the Environment Protection Authority says water used to fight the blaze is now contaminated as it flows into the Barker wetlands.
“The quality of the water was mainly organic chemicals in nature, dairy products and plastic containers,” he said.
“The wetland is well and truly capable of assimilating those so there’s very little risk.”
The Metropolitan Fire Service says the blaze smouldered all weekend but is finally out.
Firefighters have been called to a chemical spill in East Perth.
10 litres of nitric acid has spilled onto the road near the intersection of Bennett and Brook streets.
Police are proceeding to close off nearby roads.
There are no reports of injuries.
The Federal Government is taking a cautious approach to its new drought support policy and will trial the idea of grants in the good times in Western Australia, where no farmers are drought affected.
The Government promised that farmers in drought-affected areas who are receiving assistance will continue to receive income relief and interest rate subsidies until the drought is over.
About 6,000 farmers from Karratha to Esperance will be able to apply for relief measures under the program which will be trialled for one year.
Measures include financial grants for farmers experiencing hardship or who are trying to exit the industry, as well as a new focus on mental health services in farming communities.
WA Agricultural Minister Terry Redman says the current exceptional circumstances system does not help drought-stricken farmers soon enough.
“The current arrangements have a very reactive focus where we need to request to the Federal Government to have an area declared as exceptional circumstances,” he said.
“In essence that is two consecutive years of worse-than-one-in-25-year conditions. We presently have no declared areas and would not be eligible for that until at least January 2012.”
Mr Redman’s federal counterpart, Tony Burke, says the proposed new system will start on July 1.
“Normally the approach that governments have adopted is when times are in crisis we’re there and we’re helping out, and when times are good, the government normally disappears from the scene,” he said.
“This is the first time that we’ve decided to say, ‘hang on, when times are good, let’s not bail out’.
“Let’s actually stay there then [and] help farmers prepare for the future so that next time there is a crisis, fewer people hit that crisis.
“In terms of the wellbeing of a farmer, it’s a much better deal. In terms of productivity for the nation, it’s a better deal for the country as well.”
An investigation has found a crewman who died on board a cargo ship at Townsville in 2008 may have been affected by alcohol.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has completed its final report into a fatal incident on the Maltese-registered container ship ‘Spirit of Esperance’.
In November 2008, a crewman died after falling four metres while trying to stow a cargo crane hook while the ship was berthed in Townsville.
The investigation found that the correct procedures were not followed during the docking of the ship and raised concerns about whether safety procedures were routinely met.
It also found that the crewman was probably under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident which may have affected his reaction time, balance and general ability.
Salvagers have pumped almost 40 tonnes of oil from a coal carrier grounded on the Great Barrier Reef off central Queensland.
It has been almost a week since the Shen Neng ran aground on Douglas Shoal, spilling more than two tonnes of oil.
Authorities are now pumping out more than 970 tonnes of fuel oil still on the ship.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says the ship’s insurer will be forced to pay for the salvage operation and the Government will recoup its expenses from the insurance company.
“But that is a matter for down the track,” she said.
“Number one priority – get this ship out of this reef safely without any damage to the reef.”
Ms Bligh says the shipping company could face fines of up to a million dollars over the incident.
Reporting dispute
Australian maritime authorities are disputing a claim that the grounding was reported within five minutes.
In a statement on Friday the Chinese state-owned Shenzhen Energy Transport apologised for the incident saying it is cooperating with authorities.
The company says it alerted Australian authorities about five minutes after the ship ran aground but the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) disputes the claim, saying it was not told for about an-hour-and-a-half.
It then took another 25 minutes for Maritime Safety Queensland to become involved.
AMSA has asked the Chinese company to clarify its comments.
There was criticism last year that authorities took too long to act after a major oil spill off south-east Queensland.
Could take days
Meanwhile, authorities are putting safety equipment in place to reduce the risk of a further spill as they prepare to pump out the remaining fuel.
About 250 workers are on standby should any oil reach the coast.
Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ) general manager Patrick Quirk says it could take days to transfer all the oil.
“This is just a part of a long process and we need to keep our eye on the short game, which is the pumping of the oil,” he said.
“The medium-term game is the refloating and what we’re going to do when we refloat her.”
Mr Quirk says the carrier is holding together.
“The salvors have put on electronic monitoring, hull-monitoring equipment and they have advised that they are detecting no further deflections of the hull, which means that the damage has stabilised,” he said.
“We’re doing a metre-by-metre check of the ship with the salvors and that will determine what goes into the computer programs in terms of the damage-assessment reports.”
Mr Quirk says the weather conditions today are favourable.
“A bit of a wind change due Monday which we’ll need to keep our eye on, but at the moment we’re not being alarmed by the weather change,” he said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the oil transfer is a difficult and delicate operation.
“Anyone who thinks this is all over red rover, frankly, they’re not getting it right,” he said.
“This is going to take a lot of time, a lot of technical precision and hard work and it’s a very difficult situation still with no absolute guarantee of success.”
Political ‘sightseeing’
Meanwhile, Queensland Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek has criticised Premier Anna Bligh for travelling to inspect the stricken coal carrier.
Ms Bligh will today fly over the ship.
Mr Langbroek say Ms Bligh is the fourth Labor politician to go and look at the damage.
“I think it’s interesting that Anna Bligh is following the example of Kevin Rudd, [Federal Environment Minister] Peter Garrett and [Queensland Transport Minister] Rachel Nolan to be the fourth senior politician to take a plane flight over the Shen Neng 1,” he said.
“I think it’s time for the sightseeing to stop by senior politicians and let’s just let the experts get on with fixing it.”
- Reporting by Paul Robinson, Maria Hatzakis, Kerrin Binnie and Natalie Poyhonen
A man has been charged over a fire which destroyed a Salvation Army depot at North Parramatta in Sydney’s west.
The 29 year old from Toongabbie was arrested at a nearby car dealership shortly after the fire began and has now been charged with malicious damage by fire, as well as break, enter and steal.
The man is due to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.
Seventy firefighters from 15 stations spent more than two hours putting out the blaze at the charity’s two-storey North Parramatta store in western Sydney this morning.
Surrounding factories were evacuated and bus services diverted away from Church Street, but no-one was inside the Salvation Army building at the time of the blaze and there were no injuries.
The Salvation Army’s western Sydney area manager, Ted Greenaway, says the charity had planned to leave the shop for bigger premises in the next couple of months and the fire will hit the charity hard financially.
More than $100,000 worth of goods destined for needy families were lost in the blaze, and Mr Greenaway says the Salvos will have to pay the first $100,000 of any insurance claim plus other costs.
He says the fire has devastated staff.
“It’s really set us back in terms of moving to the new shop,” Mr Greenaway said.
“I’ve told all the staff to go home and take a few days off, come back next week maybe and we’ll take it from there.”
Two teenagers and a woman in her 40s have been given the all clear by ambulance officers after being trapped on a roller-coaster at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show.
The trio were stuck in a horizontal position in their seats, five metres above the ground, for about 90 minutes when the roller-coaster stopped unexpectedly about 4.00pm.
Fire Brigade Superintendent Ian Krimmer says emergency service workers used a ladder truck to bring the passengers down safely.
“It would have been a stressful time for the three people. They were stuck for over an hour,” he said.
“It’s been a combined effort to bring them down by the three services: police, fire and ambulance.
“They’re currently being assessed by ambulance crews on the ground and the cause of the incident will be investigated shortly.”
A WorkCover inspector will examine the roller-coaster tonight and determine if it is safe to continue operating.
The Defence Department says it will investigate why a boat carrying asylum seekers sank in the Indian Ocean last night.
HMAS Wollongong responded to a distress call from the boat which was found south-east of Christmas Island.
Defence says the boat initially appeared to be in good condition and it was being escorted back to the island.
The Deputy Chief of Joint Operations, Rear Admiral Allan Du Toit, says the 16 women and children were transferred off the boat before it sank and the other passengers were rescued from the water.
“[They] are now safe with no apparent health issues,” he said.
“Rescue operations like this are always extremely difficult and the fact the rescue took place safely in the dark is a credit to all of those involved.”
New South Wales Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell says his tour of the Pacific Highway has confirmed the dangerous conditions on the north coast stretch.
Mr O’Farrell drove from Ballina to Grafton on Thursday, the same day as a fatal accident on the highway near Iluka.
He’ll continue the drive from Grafton to Coffs Harbour on Friday.
Mr O’Farrell inspected the accident site yesterday.
“You are not going to have head on accidents if there is divided highway,” said the opposition leader.
“What was chilling for me was not just the accident yesterday on the day that I was visiting but listening to (local politicians) recount the names of the accidents as we went past them,” said Mr O’Farrell.
“They weren’t doing it from notes they were doing it because like good local members they understand what happens in their community they understand where these accidents have occured and they want to see an end to it, ” he said.
More details have emerged of the latest deadly accident on the Pacific Highway.
A 69 year old man died from injuries he received in a head-on collision between his car and a semi-trailer.
The accident happened around half-past five on Thursday morning, two kilometres north of the Iluka.
Police say a station wagon was travelling south when it slammed head on into the prime mover.
The truck’s fuel tank ruptured, it lost a wheel and veered into a truck-stop hitting another truck parked in the area.
The driver of the northbound truck, a 63-year-old Tamworth man, and the man sleeping in the parked truck were not injured.
Police are preparing a report for the coroner.
A teenage boy has been refused bail after a car crash that left seven people injured.
The 16-year-old is facing seven charges after crashing into a four-wheel drive on Tuesday night.
Police allege the boy stole the sedan before picking up friends.
He was following the four-wheel drive to West Albury when the crash occurred. Seven people were hurt in the crash, including a 20-year-old woman who remains in a serious condition with spinal injuries, a punctured lung and bleeding on the brain.
The defence said the boy would plead guilty to one count of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, and one of unlicensed driving.
Two people have been killed in a car crash in far East Gippsland.
Police say two cars collided on the Princes Highway at Genoa near the New South Wales border today.
Paramedics say there are reports two other people are injured.
Traffic is being redirected at Cann River along the Monaro Highway.
Two people have been killed in a car crash in East Gippsland.
Police say two cars collided on the Princes Highway at Genoa, near the New South Wales border late this morning.
Police believe one car was travelling west when it took a bend and struck gravel before over-correcting and veering into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
A 35-year-old woman and an eight-year-old boy were killed in the crash.
Two other people in the second car were injured.
The middle-age man and woman have suffered chest and back injuries and will be flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for treatment.
Eastbound traffic on the Princes Highway is being diverted via the Monaro Highway and westbound traffic from the border is being diverted along local roads.
The Victorian road toll is 88, that is eight more than at the same time last year.
Traffic police in central Victoria say they are frustrated that motorists are not heeding road safety messages.
The comments come after two serious car crashes in the region on Wednesday.
Sergeant Geoff Neil says some drivers do not believe they will ever be involved in an accident.
“We have an element in our community that don’t think, don’t care,” he said.
A 51-year-old Kyneton woman was killed when her car overturned on the Calder Freeway at Macedon on Wednesday afternoon.
Shortly afterwards, four boys were injured in a separate accident when their car hit a tree in New Gisborne.
Police say it appears the driver of the second car was an unlicensed 16-year-old. Investigations are continuing and no charges have been laid.
A 29-year-old man has been arrested over the latest in a series of suspected arson attacks that haved destroyed several Salvation Army stores.
Seventy firefighters from 15 stations spent more than two hours putting out the blaze at the charity’s two-storey North Parramatta store in western Sydney this morning.
The man was arrested just after the fire broke out on Daking Street around 8:00am and is being held at Parramatta Police Station.
Surrounding factories were evacuated and bus services have been diverted away from Church Street. No injuries have been reported.
Fire Brigades spokesman Ian Krimmer says the fire was “very vicious” because there were many flammable substances inside the store.
The Salvation Army estimates the damage bill to be more than a quarter of a million dollars.
When the fire broke out this morning, the charity’s general manager Neville Barrett was working on reopening another store in Greenpoint, on the NSW central coast, that was destroyed by an arsonist just before Christmas.
Mr Barrett says five Salvation Army stores have been hit by suspected arson attacks in the past six months.
“It’s not a regular occurrence but just recently it has been something that’s been very concerning for us,” he said. “But we don’t believe [the fires] are in any way attached to each other.”
He says in most of the cases, arsonists lit furniture that had been dumped outside the charity’s stores.
“The illegal dumping is quite a considerable part of our concern because when items are left outside our stores after hours, there is an element in the community that sees an opportunity to create a little bit of menace,” he said.
“And next thing, the items are set fire to and of course, they’re right up hard against our buildings.”
Mr Barrett is pleading with the community not to let the arsonists strike again.
“This has caused devastation,” he said.
“If you leave donations after hours, if it’s good-quality items, they’re stolen and if they’re not good quality items, that last year caused a $6 million blow-out in the Salvation Army’s budget because it cost us that much to dispose of the rubbish that was left after hours.”
Neville Barrett says the Salvation Army was already looking for a new site for its North Parramatta store and has now locked one in.
But he says the store was particularly important to the local community and staff are “totally devastated”.
The ambulance service says a man is dead after his car crashed into a tree at Gilgooma, north of Coonamble, overnight.
Ambulance officers say the 19-year-old suffered multiple injuries and died on the way to Dubbo Base Hospital.
Officers say a 21-year-old man who was a passenger in the car suffered multiple lacerations and remains in hospital.
Police are questioning a man over a crash in Churchlands where a late model BMW ploughed into a house.
The accident happened on Empire Avenue about 10:30 last night.
It appears the driver lost control of the car, which rolled before becoming airborne and plunging into the wall of the house.
No-one was seriously hurt.
Police have interviewed the owner of the car but are yet to lay any charges.
Dangerous gases have forced rescue teams to temporarily suspend a search for survivors of a massive explosion at a West Virginia coal mine that killed at least 25 workers.
Officials say worrying levels of gases mean rescuers cannot enter the mine to search for four workers who have been missing since Monday’s blast.
Chris Adkins, the chief operating officer for mine owner Massey Energy, says surface crews have resumed drilling to help ventilation below.
Anxious families have clung to the hope that some of the miners survived the blast and made their way to one of the mine’s underground refuge chambers that are stocked with food, water and air, though officials said the odds are slim.
Those shelters offered the only escape from poisonous gases in the mine, authorities said.
The blast at the Montcoal, West Virginia operation, about 48 kilometres south of the state capital Charleston, is the deadliest US mine disaster since 1984.
Eighteen bodies remain in the mine.
US president Barack Obama has ordered mine safety officials to next week report on the cause of the explosion, the Upper Big Branch mine’s safety record, and what steps the government could take to prevent a similar disaster in future.
Questions have risen about Massey’s safety record and laws governing the mining industry.
Massey has defended its record, saying its accident rate hit an all-time low last year.
The Upper Big Branch mine has had three fatalities since 1998 and a worse-than-average injury rate in the past 10 years, according to federal records, which also show it has been cited for more than 100 safety violations already this year.
It was cited for two mine safety violations on Monday which mining authorities said were unrelated to the blast.
On Thursday morning, teams of rescuers began the gruelling eight-kilometre underground trip into the mine, but the gases forced them to turn back, governor Joe Manchin said at an earlier press conference.
The setback marks the second time rescuers were driven back by the build-up of dangerous methane and carbon monoxide. The build-up of combustible methane is often cited as a cause of mine explosions.
A baby has been injured as a car crashed into a house at Morphett Vale in Adelaide’s southern suburbs.
Police say four children and a woman were inside when a teenager drove into the house in Emerald Road just after 9:00am ACST.
The one-year-old boy suffered minor injuries and was taken to hospital.
A girl aged two was taken to hospital as a precaution.
A woman and two girls, aged seven and five, were unhurt.
Police are interviewing the P-plate driver, 17, and a passenger about the accident.
Neighbours say they heard someone doing burn-outs in the street before the crash.
The New South Wales Opposition Leader says the death of a 69-year-old man on the Pacific Highway highlights the danger of parts of the road.
Barry O’Farrell is on a ‘tour of inspection’ of the highway and yesterday drove from Ballina to Grafton.
Today he is travelling between Grafton and Coffs Harbour.
He says a State Government’s commitment of $10 million for highway upgrade planning between Coffs Harbour and Ballina is a good start but it is not enough.
“For a State Government that removed $300 million from the Pacific Highway in a mini-budget two years ago, it’s clearly not enough,” he said.
“Whether it was last night on the Grafton section or this morning on the Coffs Harbour section, the fact is that there was a promise made, a promise not delivered.
“In this instance the failure to deliver that promise has cost too many lives and caused too much grief and anguish.”
Meanwhile, police have released more details of yesterday morning’s deadly Pacific Highway crash.
The man died of injuries suffered in the accident which happened about 5:30am (AEST) near the Iluka turn-off.
Police say the man’s car slammed head-on into a prime mover.
The truck’s fuel tank ruptured, it lost a wheel and veered into a truck-stop, hitting a prime mover parked in the area.
The driver of the northbound truck, a 63-year-old Tamworth man, and the man sleeping in the parked truck, were not injured.
The police crash investigation unit is preparing a report for the coroner.
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