IT SUCKS!!

Keila and the rest of the girls from Thuringowa City Gymnastics are devastated! Many of them spend most of their waking hours outside school at TCG training to compete. This was their home away from home, and they went there to spend time with their gymnastics family, (a family I'm sure many of them preferred to their own at times)!
My heart goes out to Natalie and Robyn who have built gym from the ground and cared for it like a child. Lets hope we are able to get together and help them through this.


Up in smoke
LEONIE JOHNSON
14Sep07
BOB Twohill never felt more helpless as when he watched fire roar through the business he had poured his time into building.
He stood alongside his fellow NQ Tile Styles colleagues, owners Jodie and Gavin Wheeler and co-manager Rick Gillespie in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Their shop was one of three destroyed when the inferno broke out in the Herveys Range Rd complex about 4.10am.
Also destroyed in the blaze were Home Timber and Hardware and Thuringowa City Gymnastics.
Intense flames took hold of the large building within minutes, gutting the three businesses.
Explosions were heard by nearby residents and the sky was lit up with an orange glow for hours.
The complex collapsed in on itself, making it difficult for firefighters to access the flames within.
Mr Twohill said they were all devastated.
"It's kind of like the death of a family member because we put so much time into it," he said.
"It's all fairly surreal at the moment.
"We had to go through the whole arduous task to open the building and get everything right for such a short period before this.
"We've lost everything – all our records, our computer wasn't backed up.
"All we could do was just stand there and watch it go up in flames."
Natalie Moore owns and runs the Thuringowa City Gymnastics with her mother Robyn Moore.
She said more than 200 kids used the gym.
"Most of the parents have rung me and given support," she said.
"All we can do now is hope that we can rebuild and start again."
She said she didn't know where some of her students, who were due to compete in competitions in two weeks time, would train.
Police from Brisbane's Arson Squad flew into Townsville yesterday afternoon to begin investigations to establish the cause of the blaze.
Mr Twohill said he wouldn't be surprised if kids were responsible for the fire.
"We already had an incident where kids set fire to some crates behind the building not long ago," he said.
"I've heard that someone broke into the toilets at the gymnastics place and lit the fire and it went from there."
Kirwan station officer Brian Corrigan said it appeared the blaze began in a back shed attached to the buildings and spread through the large warehouses before their eyes `within minutes'.
"It appears the fire originated from the external shed around the rear of the building and spread through," he said.
"There would have been aerosols and LPG cylinders involved so there were some minor explosions in the internal of the building.
"It took hold within minutes and in less than an hour it was through the whole thing.
"It's still burning (about 10am) because it's a structural collapse so we can't gain full access to the building.
"We've tried to make access through the walls because we can't get in internally due to the dangers.
"It's going to take some time to extinguish the remaining hot spots."
It took six fire engines to battle the large fire.
The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service were notified of the fire by multiple triple-0 calls from nearby residents.
Fire examiners won't be able to begin investigations until this morning due to the instability of the building.
"The investigations will commence properly (today), but we've done our preliminaries already and we'll do the scientific stuff (today)," Mr Corrigan said.
The building owners have all visited their ruined businesses to take stock of the damage.
Nothing can be salvaged.
Mr Corrigan said the blaze was `the biggest fire in quite awhile'.
Several businesses nearby remain closed today without power.
Atlantic Pools owners Greg and Marie Harwood say they are extremely lucky their business, which was only metres away, escaped unscathed.
"We can't open because we don't have power but we escaped any damage," she said.
"We're very, very lucky."
Townsville CIB acting officer-in-charge Detective Senior Sergeant Sean Wade said the cause of the fire won't be known for sometime yet.
"We can't make any comment to whether the fire is suspicious or not yet at this stage," he said.
Anyone with information should contact Townsville police on 4759 9777 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

ABLAZE ... The Home Timber and Hardware store, along with other businesses, went up in smoke
The North Queensland Newspaper Company Pty Ltd Copyright © January 2007