In 2014, a fire devastated the heritage-listed Sydney Building in the centre of Civic, Canberra ACT. Through a thorough forensic examination, Mark Pellegrino established that the fire had originated inside a restaurant kitchen after a chef had left oil cooking unattended.
A gas-powered cooktop burner inside the kitchen was controlled by an inline ball valve. An internal inspection of the ball valve discovered that it had burnt in several different positions, confirming that the ball valve was open during the fire development and that the gas burner used to heat the oil had been left ON.
Mr Pellegrino’s subsequent forensic origin and cause reports were used to pursue successful recovery actions for many of the third-party business and unit owners that had been affected by the fire.
Read the Coroner’s report here and the media report here.
Main image courtesy of ABC.
