Owner hopes to restore old Junee Hospital after devastating fire

More than 11 fire trucks from across the Riverina attended the scene, the first crew from Junee arriving at 5:30am on Sunday morning.

All residents had been safely evacuated by the time the fire services arrived on the scene and three were treated by paramedics for smoke inhalation with no one taken to hospital.

The owner of the old Junee Hospital, who spoke to The Daily Advertiser on condition of anonymity, said he was woken up by a call from the real estate agent telling him of the news.

"I came straight over, and it was completely alight, and the firefighters had been there for some time," he said.

"It was pretty shocking to watch it burn."

The owner said it was heartbreaking to see the destruction as they had put so much work into restoring the property, and they were close to finishing it.

"We converted it into a residence, and we had some tenants living in one part of it, and we had a proposal in with council to convert it into five units," he said.

"We were waiting for approval. Then, ironically, the next step was to put in more fire-proofing measures.

"It's also so sad because it is such an iconic building for the town, so it's a great loss."

The owner said they would work hard to try and save the Junee institution.

"We need to have it inspected by engineers to see if we can save it," he said.

"There is a lot of damage, but having said that, it was an old structure with solid foundations. We will work with the insurance company.

"My first preference is to restore it and continue the project."

The owner thanked the emergency services for their hard work, adding they did a fantastic job trying to save the building.

"I want to send a message out that we are still committed to saving the building and maintaining it," he said.

"We think it is such an important part of Junee's history."

Fire and Rescue duty commander Glen Whitehead said they had about 50 firefighters at the scene on Sunday battling the fire.

"It was a massive effort. We had crews from Turvey park, Wagga, Narrandera, Temora and of course Junee," he said.

"It was about eight hours, from time of call to extinguishment.

"In times like this, people had early warning and they were saved because they had a working smoke detector."

Inspector Whitehead said investigations into the cause were still underway.

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