Six youths have been arrested over a fire which has ripped through the abandoned Big Brother house on the Gold Coast.
[jwplayer QunZUtZ4]
Per a Queensland Police statement, the fire broke out at around 2:15pm on Saturday afternoon at the Foxwell Road property in Coomera. The youths, aged between nine and 15, are reportedly being questioned at a local police station.
The fire has been deemed “suspicious.”
Authorities said the blaze did not pose a risk to other nearby properties, however residents affected by smoke are being told to close their windows and doors.
There have been no reported injuries, Queensland Ambulance confirmed in a tweet.
Footage posted on social media shows a large amount of dense smoke rising from the Big Brother mansion.
#BREAKING There is a fire at the Big Brother house on the Gold Coast. Emergency crews are at the scene. @9NewsGoldCoast @9NewsQueensland pic.twitter.com/TtkEUKI8kz
— Lachlan Grant (@_LachlanGrant) June 22, 2019
@njkelly9 just driven past at Dreamworld pic.twitter.com/fwrc604Dli
— Leon Tomlinson (@leontomlinson97) June 22, 2019
The former house of the reality telly series went absolutely viral across the country after Aussie YouTuber MuiTube filmed himself exploring the rapidly decaying building. The 15-minute video shows the mansion in an unfortunate state of ruin, with the swimming pool now a stagnant pond and the Diary Room, where contestants used to confess their dark secrets, now covered in shattered glass.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxzQxttghgk/?utm_source=ig_embed
Big Brother ran from 2001 to 2008 on Network Ten before it was axed. Nine scooped it up in 2012 for three seasons.
The mansion’s current owners, the Queensland Investment Corporation, recently told The Courier Mail “there are currently no plans for this site”, however they are “currently considering a range of future options.”
