Police confirmed early Monday afternoon that the Commercial Hotel premise is now safe for repairs to take place. 

Police and the Country Fire Authority spent Monday morning examining the building, determining the fire originated in the kitchen and is not suspicious. 

EARLIER: 

POLICE are investigating the cause of a fire at Horsham’s Commerical Hotel on Sunday night.

Horsham police Detective Acting Sergeant Travis Kerr said structural engineers and Country Fire Authority investigators were on site on Monday morning.

“The engineers need to deem the scene is safe for us to go in and make an assessment,” Detective Acting Sergeant Kerr said.

“At this stage, it’s not being treated as a suspicious fire – but given we have not been able to get into the area of origin, we just need to determine that’s where it occurred.

“It appears some time around 6.30pm staff reported some form of smoke in the kitchen area, which has led to the flames being seen. Staff did their best to extinguish it but made a call to the CFA.”

CFA District 17 duty officer Alfred Mason said the fire originated in the kitchen.​

“A lot of people might think the fire was in the hotel, but the fire did not get into the pub itself. The power was disconnected on Sunday night,” he said.

Read more: Rolling coverage as crews respond to fire at Horsham’s Commercial Hotel

“Often the exhaust system is a hazard with any commercial kitchen with a build up of oil fumes.”

Mr Mason said crews from Horsham, Murtoa, Vectis and Ballarat responded to the fire, along with police and ambulance.

“Within an hour the fire wasn’t going anywhere but they were working on it well into the night,” Mr Mason said.

“With the volume of smoke coming out of the vent system, we thought the hotel was on fire. They contained it to the room of origin but some of it was difficult to access.

“There was a total of eight appliances – two of those were command vehicles. They had a ladder platform and a pumper come from Ballarat.

“Ambulance Victoria was there for health monitoring and police attended for the road block.”