Two teens have been charged over two fires in Goulburn, one of which destroyed a Centrelink office and damaged a St Vincent de Paul store.
Cleaners at the Centrelink office along with triple 0 calls alerted firefighters at 8.30pm on Monday.
More than 100 firefighters, some coming from as far as Cabramatta and the ACT, took three hours to bring the raging inferno at the Centrelink office on the second floor of the Auburn St building under control.
The fire spread to the nearby charity store with firefighters attacking the blaze from two ladder trucks because of fears the northern wall in the building could collapse.
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READ NOWPockets of the fire continued to burn this morning. No one was injured.
One crew from the first fire were diverted to a smaller blaze 200 metres away at the former St Patrick’s Primary School on Verner St. It was quickly extinguished with minimal interior damage.
A 17-year-old was arrested at the school suffering hypothermia and burns to his feet and hands.
Police then arrested at 19-year-old during a search at a Lansdowne St address.
They were each charged with two counts of destroy property by fire in company, aggravated break and enter to commit a serious indictable offence and aggravated enter dwelling with intent.
The 19-year-old man was refused bail to appear at Goulburn Local Court, while the teenage boy was refused bail to appear at a Children’s Court.
NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Andrew Ticehurst said due to the intensity of the Centrelink fire firefighters took a defensive position to stop it spreading to adjoining buildings.
“It was quite significant, we had specialist trucks from Western Sydney and the ACT. It was fully involved and we took a defensive position to fight the fire aggressively. Firefighters are assisting police this morning,” he said.
Supt Ticehurst said it was unclear if accelerants were used but furniture, clothing and paper fuelled the large blaze.
Centrelink customers are being told to use digital services.