It’s not the sort of photo that Melbourne operator Craig Membrey wanted to see come through on his phone late last night.
But he was relieved that his driver Jaiden was okay – and Membrey was full of praise for the small NSW community of Gurley on the Newell Highway that’s still reeling from losing their iconic pub, the Royal Hotel, in a fire overnight.
Jaiden, on his regular run from Melbourne to Brisbane, had been showering in the Gurley Roadhouse across the road but the residents there feared he may have been sleeping inside the burning hotel when they saw his fully loaded K200 road train out front.
“He was in the shower across the road and they were all yelling out, ‘Where’s the Membrey’s truck driver? Where’s the Membrey’s driver?'” said Membrey, boss of Membrey’s Transport and Crane Hire.
“He came out of the shower and didn’t know what was going – we just about lost our truck.”
Luckily, however, quick-thinking Jaiden was able to safely move the truck out of harm’s way despite the fierce blaze nearby.
“It could have been a disaster – it’s a fairly new K200 Kenworth but no one was hurt, I was happy about that, that’s for sure.
“You can always replace the truck, but you can’t replace the driver.”
Jaiden was able to drive on to the Brisbane depot later that night.
Membrey thanked the community and urged everyone to stay safe over the busy holiday period.
“We send our condolences to the owners of the Royal Hotel – we hope it’s a speedy rebuild! Membrey also wrote on his company’s Facebook page.
According to one media report, emergency services were called to the Royal Hotel at Gurley, a town with a population of about 250 people, at 8.30pm last night.
A post on the pub’s Facebook page said it had been due to close for a summer break from Friday until March.
Gurley Fire Brigade member Brendan Munn was one of the first on the scene on Thursday night.
“By the time we got there, [the hotel] was absolutely fully engulfed in flames,” Munn told ABC News.
“[The pub] is not going to recover from this one.”
Munn said the fire burned for hours.
“All we could do was try to slow it and stop it from getting to the house next door, which we did,” he said.