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Fire at Victoria Ranges Gym 16-Nov-2004 At 12:46:41 PM M

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I went and had another look at VR last night. Walking around the back of the complex in the park behind you get an idea of how large the place really was. The gym was only a small part of the whole complex. The warehouse is completely destroyed wiith the huge metal girders all bent and twisted. That part of the fire must have been really hot. The walls of the gym itself seem mostly intact and the windows near reception and the rear stairs are mostly unbroken. The stairs seem intact as well. From the back of the building through a missing part of wall the lead wall is clearly visible and the lower half seems intact the paint and the words vic ranges are still clear so the fire in that part of the building cant have been that hot. This makes me think that there probably are some holds and other stuff which may be recoverable. I also wonder if that part of the building can be recovered or rebuilt.
I climbed there for about 9 years and even seeing it its hard to believe that its gone. Its obviously not as bad as if someone died but its still hard to comprehend a part of your life just not there anymore.

in terms of using the other gyms, i dont really have any serious problems with either of them but Vic ranges was 5 -10 minutes on my bike and no matter how good they are they are still about 1/2 and hour in the car. i have two small children so i often went to the gym for just an hour when i had some rare free time. now i need the hour and a car just for the trip.