The City of Sydney Council failed to act on a complaint regarding the industrial site at Burrows Road in Alexandria prior to the fire that destroyed the property in the early hours of last Wednesday, June 2.

The fire exposed an illegal boarding house for international students living in the inner city, the likes of which are becoming increasingly prevalent in the area.

City of Sydney Councillor Edward Mandla condemned council’s lack of action.

“The City of Sydney failed and there is absolutely no excuse. I actually think council owes the people living there an apology as they’ve let everyone down.”

“People nearly died this time,” Cr Mandla said.

“There’s a whisper going around council that even if we knew, we wouldn’t have had the power to do anything. That is rubbish – we have perfectly adequate powers of entry and inspection and we could have stopped this from happening.”