Maree Henry, owner of Woolloongabba wedding venue The Lussh that was destroyed in a massive blaze last week says the fire “could have been prevented”.

“This was actually the third fire we’d had in two months,” Henry told ABC Radio Brisbane on Monday morning.

“All the buildings around us had been purchased by a developer … [but] these buildings had been abandoned and just allowed to deteriorate,” she said.

Loading

While developers have already lodged plans for residential towers, as well as restaurants and shops in the area, the government’s decision not to rebuild the Gabba stadium for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games has put a cloud over the area.

Henry said incidents with squatters staying in the empty buildings have been ongoing, including threats to staff, graffiti, break-ins, and property damage.

“The whole environment was quite dangerous,” she said.

“We could be sitting in the backyard and they [squatters] would smash a window out of the top. The glass just would fall on anyone who happened to be on the ground below ...

“The council just told us that it was a private property and that there was nothing they could do, so … this continued to happen, but occasionally, they would come in and do like a very ad hoc attempt at boarding it up.

“But then that was just ripped down within a day and it really needed just to be completely permanently secured.”

Henry and her team scrambled to find alternative venues for weddings booked for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, after Wednesday afternoon’s fire. They are now working to relocate four weddings booked for this week.