BY JAMES WILKINSON

The heritage-listed Diamant Canberra re-opened yesterday (July 11) after being forced to close for 18 days following a huge blaze that that destroyed an adjacent building.

Open again: Diamant Canberra

The fire on June 23 was believed to have started in a pizza oven at in the adjacent Flint Restaurant and quickly engulfed the entire heritage building. Flint was incinerated, as was the popular Parlour Wine Room bar next door.

The hotel only suffered minor damage in the blaze, which took 40 firefighters to control and also destroyed the offices of the property’s owner, Molonglo Group.

8Hotels CEO Paul Fischmann said he was ecstatic to see the hotel re-opening so soon after the blaze.

“We are thrilled and grateful for the support by our guests and the community,” he said. “We are already close to being sold out this week and its very much business as usual.”

Fischmann said the hotel’s restaurant, Bicicletta, was on schedule to re-open in mid-August and in the meantime, the Diamant Library Bar was serving Australian wines, coffee, a tapas style menu and room service.