Fire hits vacant Devonport home earmarked for 30 social units

A vacant home at 11 Fenton Street, Devonport caught fire in the early hours of Sunday, with Tasmania Police and Tasmania Fire Service crews called to the property at 4.15am to find a section of it well alight. The house sits on a site earmarked for a 30-apartment social housing block, and the blaze has put a question mark over a property already mid-transition from a 1930s rental to a six-storey development.

Why it matters

The fire service confirmed the property was vacant at the time crews arrived. No cause has been released, and Tasmania Police and Tasmania Fire Service investigations continue. The site matters beyond its own four walls: it was earmarked in 2024 for demolition to make way for a six-storey, 30-apartment social housing development from Housing Choices Tasmania, approved unanimously by Devonport City Council in January 2025 over opposition from the Gateway Hotel across the road. A fire at a property already queued for redevelopment is a different story to one at an ordinary vacant house, even before a cause is known.

The numbers

Crews found significant damage inside the house and smoke damage across its exterior, with broken and boarded-up windows visible on the property. The Advocate reported it was not clear whether the boarding predated the fire, leaving open the question of how long the site had been exposed before Sunday’s blaze. Real estate records show the house was built in 1930, was rented out from 2021 and sold at the end of 2022. Two years later, in 2024, it was earmarked for demolition to clear the way for the Housing Choices Tasmania development. Devonport City Council unanimously approved the 30-apartment development application in January 2025, a decision carried despite strong opposition from the Gateway Hotel, which sits directly across the road from the site.

What’s next

Devonport City Council’s January 2025 approval already covers demolition of the existing house as part of the project, so the fire does not appear to change the development’s planning status on the public record. Housing Choices Tasmania was contacted by The Advocate for comment on the fire; no response was reported by publication. Tasmania Police and Tasmania Fire Service have not released a cause or a timeline for when their investigations will conclude, and this masthead will not speculate on either ahead of their findings. For Devonport, the outcome still rests on the same approved 30-unit social housing block moving from paper to construction, whatever role Sunday’s fire ultimately played in clearing the site that was due to be cleared anyway.

The project also lands inside a tighter funding picture for the sector statewide. Homes Tasmania, the state housing agency, disclosed this month that it has hit a $546 million debt ceiling as losses mount, a constraint that bears on how quickly community housing providers like Housing Choices Tasmania can move approved stock from paper to construction. Whether Housing Choices Tasmania now treats the fire-damaged structure as a head start on the demolition it already had planned, or as a fresh insurance and safety process to work through first, will shape how soon the 30 units move from approved drawings to a construction start.