Destruction of clubrooms by fire bitter blow for bowling club

Balclutha Bowling Club members tried to crack jokes in the face of losing their clubrooms to fire early on Saturday morning, to stave off what otherwise would most likely have been tears.

The Charlotte St clubrooms were destroyed in the blaze which is believed to have started at the building's southern end early Saturday morning.

Police believe an electrical fault in that part of the building caused the fire.

The alarm was raised at 1.20am but a team of about 25 firefighters from Balclutha, Milton and Kaitangata could do little but try and contain the blaze.

Detective Sergeant Kate Harrison said the preliminary findings from an extensive scene investigation concluded the blaze was not deliberately lit but police wanted to finish their inquiries before confirming this.

Emotional club members spent most of Saturday trying to save anything they could from the gutted clubrooms.

Most of their bowls were retrieved but irreplaceable photographs, recording the club's 126-year history, went up in smoke.

A small part of one bowling green was also damaged.  Initially, police were treating the fire as suspicious.

Club president John de Malmanche was the last to leave the clubrooms about 6.45pm on Friday after the weekly Friday night social hour.

The building was locked and secured when he left. The next time he saw it, it was engulfed in flames.

Those spoken to during Saturday's clean-up said the same thing - the blaze was utterly devastating.

Mr de Malmanche said everyone was still in a state of shock and struggling to believe what had happened.

‘‘We've had burglaries in the past but at least they left the building standing.''

The club's executive would meet insurance assessors today.

Mr de Malmanche said he understood the club was fully insured. Once those details had been sorted out, he hoped the executive would make a recommendation to rebuild.

Whatever decision it made, the issue would be debated by the entire club, with a final decision expected to be made by its annual meeting on May 29.

Mr de Malmanche said the fire had left the club with a heavy burden but he believed its close-knit membership would surmount the disaster and be determined not to let it ruin the club.

Members comforted each other on Saturday morning, and some were even cracking jokes and trying to see the positive side.

Mr de Malmanche believed that was nothing more than ‘‘false bravado''.   ‘‘Everyone is hurting inside. This is just a tragedy".

Ironically, last night was due to be a celebration of the sport with the South Otago Bowls Association end of season prizegiving at Kaitangata.

Mr de Malmanche believed the mood would be bittersweet, to say the least.

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