A historic hotel on the main street of Yass, in southern New South Wales, has been destroyed by a suspicious fire.
Emergency services arrived at the Commercial Hotel on Comur Street about 2am on Monday, to find it well alight.
It took 10 units and 30 personnel from the NSW Rural Fire Service, along with NSW and ACT fire and rescue crews, more than three hours to extinguish the blaze.
Emergency services said there was little left of the historic building.
Southern Tablelands RFS operational officer Mitchell Butler said the fire damage was contained to the Commercial Hotel, although there were power outages impacting some surrounding businesses.
An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, with NSW police treating the blaze as suspicious.
About 12 hours after the fire began, a 20-year-old man was arrested at a nearby address on Comur Street and was charged with property damage by fire.
Anyone with information about the fire has been urged to contact Yass Police or Crime Stoppers.
'A bit of an eyesore'
The Commercial Hotel was built in the 1840s but had been left in a derelict state after shutting its doors in 2005.
Judith Davidson from the Yass District Historical Society said the hotel had "a lot of status" in its time.
"It served the early community of Yass as a traveller's stopover and a focal of social events in the town for some time," she said.
But despite its history, Ms Davidson said the building had become "a bit of an eyesore" in recent years.
"It's been left to decay for quite a long time, through a series of owners who haven't seemed to be able to actually get any kind of restoration or redevelopment going for the building," she said.
She said it was important that whatever replaced the hotel was in keeping with the colonial streetscape.
"It's going to have to be carefully monitored, we don't really want a supermarket," Ms Davidson said.
Extensive renovation plans
In 2021, Canberra developers Andrew Turnbull and Anthony Barrie purchased the hotel, and the Yass Valley Council approved the removal of the front verandah as part of extensive renovations early last year.
While the hotel was not heritage listed, Mr Barrie told the council last year that they wanted to retain the hotel's heritage character in the redevelopment.
"The verandah will be replaced and we will take every step to ensure the building's heritage character is preserved as we prepare to reopen the hotel as a family-friendly pub," Mr Barrie said.
"We will also retain and source older materials that will enable us to achieve this."
