The West End Association has renewed its call for the Adelaide City Council to step in to enforce building maintenance standards following yesterday’s fire in a city martial arts academy.

Co-president of the west end business precinct group, Andrew Wallace, told InDaily some buildings on Hindley Street, near the site of the blaze, were “dilapidated”.

The Metropolitan Fire Service has reported the Wing Chun Kung Fu Academy off Hindley Street contained old-fashioned seaweed insulation which caught fire quickly.

While not wanting to pre-empt the MFS investigation into the cause of yesterday’s blaze, Wallace said poor building maintenance was common in the West End, which raised questions about building safety.

He said if some business owners were unwilling to fix or maintain their premises, Adelaide City Council should force them to do so.

“(What) we want is some sort of bylaw that forces people to look after their property,” said Wallace.

“The state of the buildings in Hindley Street … in some cases, is really deplorable.

“You can still see broken windows in upper floor stories (of) buildings which are just filled in with cardboard.

“In Vancouver (Canada) there is legislation in place where, if – for instance – a window in my building was broken, and I don’t fix it after a certain period of time, council would issue an order for it to be fixed.

“If it is not fixed, council will fix it, and retrieve the cost of that through rates, or other means.

“We want some version of (that).

“It would be great to … see those upper floor spaces on Hindley Street being bought back to life.

“The benefits will be safety and amenity, and presentation.”

Smoke billowing from the burning building near the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Tuesday.

Wallace acknowledged it was the responsibility of business owners to maintain their buildings, but “if they don’t do it, what do you do?”

“A well presented street is good for the business climate in the street,” he said.

“It will help attract good business to the area.”

Wallace also said that the run-down nature of some buildings along Hindley Street contributed to anti-social behaviour.

“If people aren’t taking care of the buildings in the street, then people feel that (anti-social behaviour) is actually okay,” he said.

“If places are poorly cared for then people behave badly.”

He said the state of some buildings in the West End was in stark contrast to many “meticulously maintained” buildings in the East End.

“One of the reasons (Rundle) Street feels great is because those buildings are so well maintained,” he said.

MFS Operations Commander David Goreham told the ABC this morning that the cause yesterday’s fire was still unknown.

“We are unsure what exactly started the fire, but we are very sure that unwanted furniture, such as mattresses etc, were left in a back lane,” he said.

“[They] have caught fire somehow, and spread quite rapidly to a car and then into the roof of the premises, which had seaweed as an insulation and that caught fire very quickly.

“We do have concerns with the building, it has partially collapsed – the roof and first floor have.”

InDaily contacted Adelaide City Council for comment.