Fast- acting firies contain blaze as studio faces disaster
THE introduction of ID scanners at night- life hot spots across Queensland has been hailed a success following the first night of operation.
Almost 90,000 partygoers had their details recorded at 180 venues in 15 precincts across the state on Saturday.
Attorney- General Yvette D’Ath said only seven people unsuccessfully tried to breach a banning order, while police issued another 35.
“Those 35 banning notices would’ve been showing up on every ID scanner system in a licensed venue across the state, within those safe night precincts, within an hour,” she said yesterday.
Those revellers were in Rockhampton, the Gold Coast and Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.
Ms D’Ath said there were also no sexual assaults and just three assaults recorded in those areas.
“This is significantly down from previous numbers,” she said.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Brent Carter said just 50 people were arrested for drunken offences.
“It’s a real change in behaviour,” he said yesterday.
“Based on last night I have a great deal of confidence we’re going to see a good reduction in violence.” OWNERS of a North Ward weight loss studio will be sifting through the ashes of their business today to see if they can recover anything following a destructive fire.
Emergency services rushed to the Hypoxi Body Studio about 1pm yesterday to find smoke billowing out of the front doors, before smashing their way in to find it well alight.
The Bundock St business sustained significant smoke, fire and water damage. Acting Townsville Station Officer Tristan Giles said the damage was contained to the one shopfront, thanks to quick work from the firefighters.
“We arrived to find Hypoxi Body Studio on fire; we had to make entry through the front doors, force our way in and had two teams attack the fire and knock it down very quickly,” he said.
“Given the nature of the building and that it has two adjoining properties that was definitely a big concern, making sure that we contained the fire as quickly as we could.
“At this stage it looks like it started near the front desk; however, we don’t really know what started it or how long it had been burning. There’s extensive damage. The whole shop will more than likely need to be redone, at a guess.”
Investigators are expected to continue working today to find the cause of the blaze.