On the night of 8 April 1996, a fire broke out in Unit 31 of Victoria's largest housing institution for people with intellectual disabilities, known as Kew Cottages. Nine residents inside Unit 31 died in the fire. A Coronial Inquest revealed that locked ward, without a sprinkler system or an adequate alarm system was to blame.
Kew Residential Services fire, 1996
Quick Statistics
9
Fatalities
Sources
ABC Radio National 2000, The law report – Coroner’s death defying decisions, 10 October 2000, website viewed 23 September 2011.
Fox C 2003, ‘Debating deinstitutionalisation: The fire at Kew Cottages in 1996 and the idea of community’, Health and History, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 37-59.
Only Melbourne, Kew Cottages protest, website viewed 23 September 2011.