UPDATE, Wednesday, 3pm
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FIREFIGHTERS have been praised for their quick response to a fire at a Port Campbell motel.
Adam Kordupel, who lives upstairs at Waves Restaurant with his fiancee Raquel, was at work on a nearby farm when the blaze began.
A cleaner upstairs noticed smoke coming from an outside hot water system and called Mr Kordupel to alert him.
He contacted his fiancee, who was asleep shortly after 5.30am on Wednesday morning.
“I asked her to look outside and she told me the hot water service was on fire,” Mr Kordupel said.
He contacted Triple-0 and got in his car to make the 12 minute drive to the premises.
Port Campbell CFA volunteers were already on-site when he arrived.
“Their response time was incredible,” Mr Kordupel said.
“We can’t thank them enough.”
He said there was damage to the top storey roof and a wall, but it could have been a lot worse.
“I was told a couple more minutes and the whole building would have been lost,” he said.
The two occupants were able to escape unharmed, but a firefighter sliced his hand on a piece of tin and needed stitches, Mr Kordupel said.
The restaurant has been given the all clear to reopen on Thursday morning at 8am.
CFA volunteers from Port Campbell, Timboon and Simpson were able to extinguish the blaze in the Lord Street building in about an hour. The blaze was sparked by a gas leak.
A GAS leak sparked a fire at a Port Campbell motel in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Sergeant David Banks, of Port Campbell police, said the CFA was alerted of the blaze at Waves in Lord Street shortly after 5.30am.
He said a gas leak in a hot water service sparked a fire in the upstairs part of the building.
There were a number of occupants who escaped unharmed.
“CFA from Port Campbell, Timboon and Simpson attended,” Mr Banks said.
The blaze was extinguished in about an hour, Sergeant Banks said.
He said the downstairs restaurant was not damaged, but the owners were not sure when the eatery would reopen.