'Insurance premiums aren't looking good': Canberra podiatry business loses two clinics in less than a year

In less than a year, Richard Lee has lost two of his businesses to fire.

The first was in October 2023 when a dry cleaner on Giles Street in Kingston went up in flames late at night and left all the neighbouring shopfronts ruined by smoke.

And now, this week, the roof of the Ochre Medical Centre at the Kippax Fair Shopping Centre in Belconnen is hanging by a thread.

Richard Lee is the founder of The Walking Clinic, a podiatry service that, until Tuesday (20 August), had six locations across Canberra.

“We left Kingston and moved to Manuka because there was just nothing to be done there,” he said.

“We’d just opened Manuka about eight months ago, and now we’ve got this.”

Firefighters were called to Kippax at around 8:19 am on Tuesday after a fire alarm in the building went off.

There are several tenants in the Ochre Medical Centre building, including a dentist, imaging centre, physiotherapist and The Walking Clinic.

Two of Richard’s staff members were in the building at the time, a podiatrist and receptionist, who said they picked up a whiff of smoke emanating from the back of the building on arrival, but “they weren’t too concerned until the alarm went off”.

All up, 30 people were evacuated from the building while those inside the nearby childcare centre and vet clinic were told to stay inside due to the thick smoke that began billowing from the roof and floating across the rest of the shopping centre.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but ACT Fire & Rescue said, “The main timber structure of the building has been compromised by the fire, and there’s the potential of the roof collapsing in that area”.

Richard certainly doesn’t expect to be back inside for “quite a few months”.

“It’s a bit unknown at the moment – we’re waiting for the structural engineer to go through the property and assess it and make it safe to see what needs to be done and when we’re safe to go back in,” he said.

“And we’ve got to go through lots of assessments to find out what it will cost to refit. All our equipment is toast, and the rest smoke-damaged.”

The Walking Clinic took over the 80-square-metre space from ‘Happy Feet’ in 2022, with a perk being it was largely already set up as a podiatry service.

Richard said this week’s work has been contacting customers and rebooking appointments at the nearby Belconnen clinic in the town centre. The Walking Clinic also has locations in Lyneham, Woden, Manuka and Garran, as well as satellites in Hall and Murrumbateman.

“Some people weren’t willing to go to our other clinics and we had to shift some around, but all our customers have been very understanding.”

The staff at Kippax have relocated to Belconnen.

“We had five clinics and then six, and now we’re back to five,” Richard said.

“Insurance premiums aren’t looking good for us.”