The windows of the office were shattered, and the outside fire had set the curtains alight.
A fire set by a prospector who hated Germans destroyed the first settlement in 1859.
That calamity became acute and big news around the world last month when fires set to clear land burned out of control.
But the fire set that night got into the walls and ceilings.
However, frequent fires, often set by humans, damage the understory.
The fires already set by their fire bombs lighting everything up.
Surely no fire that burned that completely could have been natural or set by the hand of humans.
"The fire of God set alight," came the response.
An enormous fire crackled in a stone hearth set into the far wall.
"Do you think that fire in your office set itself" he asked.