Man arrested after 65 firefighters and 16 fire engines attend Caulfield racecourse blaze

A man has been arrested in relation to a fire in the grandstand at Caulfield racecourse, Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday morning.

Police confirmed a 51-year-old man had been arrested at Mordialloc railway station 17km away at about 1.45pm after reports of several grass fires in the area.

Firefighters descended on Caulfield racecourse at about 6am, with reports of a fire in the Norman Robinson stand. An hour later, the 65 firefighters and 16 fire engines attending the blaze had managed to put it out.

"Investigators are investigating links between the three grass fires, in the vicinity of Attenborough Park and reserve in Mordialloc about 12.30pm and the grandstand fire this morning," a Victoria Police statement read. "The man, whose last known address was in Wangaratta, will now be interviewed by detectives."

No-one was injured in the Caulfield blaze, but repairs are expected to cost millions of dollars.

The club is expected to be without the Norman Robinson stand, the 1876 bar and the Medallion bar for the club's signature autumn meeting, the Blue Diamond Stakes day in February. 

Melbourne Racing Club chairman John Kanga said repair works would start as a matter of urgency.

"We are going to rebuild and make it bigger and better," he added. "We are fully insured and we will start as quick as we can. There won't be any delays.

"The positive thing is no-one was injured. It's pretty ugly, a lot of superficial damage to the bars. Structurally, it will be fine. We will rebuild it accordingly."

A scheduled meeting at Caulfield's Heath track was transferred to Mornington.

Dennis Smith, incident controller at Fire Rescue Victoria, said “significant” damage had been done to the grandstand.

However, Smith said: “Thankfully, with their quick work and some really good work from the internal fire systems, they were able to stop it from spreading to the adjoining grandstands.”

"It's timber, so it burnt pretty well. The 1876 bar behind has also been impacted by fire. This area, being such an old building, there was potential for it to become a very significant fire. It was an aggressive attack and it could have been a lot worse."

Smith said the origin of the fire had yet to be determined and would be part of the investigation conducted by Victoria Police.

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