CRIME SCENE detectives are at the old Kurri Kurri Workers Club this morning after a fire police believe was deliberately lit ripped through the vacant building on Monday afternoon.
Hunter Valley Police District chief inspector Michael Gorman said officers are looking for any evidence that points to what, or who, might have started the Lang Street blaze.
"We are certainly treating it as suspicious," he said.
"The difficulty is that it's been closed and abandoned for some time, and it's not the first time we've had people in the building who shouldn't be.
"Crime scene investigators will be looking for any accelerants or anything else of an evidentiary nature - we have detectives there this morning doing a canvass."
Chief inspector Gorman said the fire, which started around 3:15pm, burned through most parts of the building leaving extensive damage in its wake.
He said a specially trained team will be looking for the seat of the fire this morning.
"We're doing that level of investigation to determine if it was deliberately lit or whether a squatter may have lit it accidentally," he said.
"We'll gather forensic evidence to determine what has happened and how it started."
Fire and Rescue NSW crews were still on scene until about 9:20pm last night working to control the fire.
Businesses surrounding the former club were evacuated as the blaze took hold, while NSW Ambulance paramedics remained on scene as a precaution.
It is the second time in as many years that a fire has broken out at the old club, after a firefighters were called to a blaze on the evening of March 3, last year.
The Workers Club first opened in 1955 and was closed in 2017. Administrator Greg Russell said at the time that it was a difficult decision to close the Kurri club but it was no longer feasible for it to remain open.
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