REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday, October 29, 1999

THE Gold Coast’s emergency services were stretched to the limit after a suspected firebombing plunged the city’s north into chaos.

An Ashmore factory and Italian restaurant were destroyed after a firebomb was thrown through a window, police said.

Peak-hour traffic was in chaos as smoke billowed from the plastics factory for more than nine hours.

All but two of the Gold Coast’s fire engines were called to the blaze at the Multi-Pak Packaging factory on Olsen Ave.

Back-up units from Loganlea and Beenleigh were called in and all the region’s ambulances were on standby.

A building caretaker told police he saw shadowy figures outside just before the fire broke out.

Firemen had to use breathing equipment while police wore masks to protect themselves from the fumes.

“Long-term exposure has the potential to cause cancer,” said ambulance commander Chris Simpson.

Alex Drossos, the partowner of the packaging factory and the adjacent Toscani’s restaurant, which was also gutted, said he was devastated.

“I know nobody who would do this,” he said. “Disgusting.”

Firefighters said a factory employee was inside the building when the fire broke out but escaped unharmed.

At the scene police reportedly found an unbroken bottle along with fire accelerants.

The factory was demolished in the days following the fire but a small section of the former eatery remains today as a different business.