An 800-strong south-west Sydney football club is facing a mid-season nightmare after a fire destroyed the team’s clubhouse and rendered their home field unfit for matches and training.
A fire gutted the Camden Falcons FC building after breaking out in the early hours of Saturday morning, causing part of the building to collapse.
The club’s president, Cindy Fielder, told 702 ABC Sydney that 30 teams of all ages are affected and can no longer play at Belgenny Reserve.
Firefighters responded to the blaze after reports were made at 1:20am on Saturday. (Supplied: Camden Falcons FC)
“It’s been such an emotional roller-coaster,” Ms Fielder said.
“We’re up to third generations of players who have played with the club, who have had their children play in the club, and are now coaches coaching their grandchildren.
“The club was built by volunteers over 35 years ago. It’s more than just playing football on the field.“
Ms Fielder said irreplaceable trophies and club memorabilia were lost in the fire.
She said the Macarthur region’s football community had rallied around the club, offering to host games on Saturday so players did not miss out.
The club cannot play at their home ground due to the risk of the structure collapsing and field contamination. (Supplied: Camden Falcons FC)
The field is unable to be used because of potential field contamination and the risk of the building collapsing.
Investigators with Fire and Rescue have not yet determined what caused the fire.
Ms Fielder said the club needed support from Camden Council with clear guidance around handling donations from the community and how to rebuild the clubhouse.
“That’s going to go a long way to rebuilding the Falcons’ Nest to its former glory,” Ms Fielder said.
Camden Mayor Therese Fideli said she hoped the team would be able to use the grounds again in the next three weeks.
“As a council, we have to wait for the outcomes of the investigation, together with insurance assessments and site safety requirements,” Cr Fideli said.
“Once this is all finalised … we will be hopefully getting them back onto their grounds.“
The mayor stopped short of committing funds to helping rebuild the club, saying she would need to talk to the council first.
Camden Falcons are no strangers to disaster, having had their field and clubhouse flood in 2022 just before the start of the season.
“We recovered fairly quickly from the floods in terms of Gernis cleaning the clubhouse and getting back on the field. This is different.” Ms Fielder said.
“This is memorabilia. This is history.”
