To view via iPhone or iPad, click Change Player settings on the black bar below and select MPEG4options={AutoRewind:false,AutoStart:false,Player:"flv",Speed:"low",Width:463,Height:260}A DISASTROUS year has continued for Creswick’s Farmers Arms Hotel, with a fire ripping through the rear of the building and engulfing the roof yesterday.Earlier this year the Albert Street hotel was flooded, with owner Eddie Koene describing his cellar at the time as a “waterfall”.Yesterday a CFA spokeswoman said the hotel fire began in a rear bedroom about 12.45pm and quickly spread to the timber roof.“About 50 per cent of the building is destroyed,” she said.“We had 20 firefighters on scene and one man was treated by ambulance crews for minor burns.”The spokeswoman said a pet cat had to be put down as a result of the fire.Creswick man Bill Hosie was inside the pub at the time and described the first moments of the fire.“I was sitting in the bar with a beer (when the fire started),” he said.“I didn’t leave it there either — I made sure I took it out with me.”Mr Hosie said there were only about four people inside at the time of the blaze.“I was just sitting there, the cook was out cooking something for some people and come in and said ‘get out of the bar, it’s on fire out the back’, so we got out,” he said.“It went up very quick actually, we opened a door and the smoke just went straight at us.”Clunes resident Damien Coates said he was one of the first on the scene.“I was across the road getting some lunch and all of a sudden there was smoke all over the street,” he said.“Flames were coming out the back end of the building, there was lots of smoke everywhere. It’s great that everyone made it out.”Owner of the nearby Creswick caravan park, Cathy Buckland, said the small town’s community spirit shone through when the fire erupted.“When we came up here, there were lots of people trying to get through the bar door to help, but there was too much smoke,” she said.“Having a small business myself, I really feel for the owners of the pub.”Creswick woman Cheryl Malone said she was working a few blocks away from the Farmers Arms when she noticed the blaze.“You could just see the smoke billowing from the back,” she said.Three CFA appliances from Creswick attended the fire, while single units from Ballarat City, Clunes and Kingston also helped fight the blaze.The hotel is famous for being the site of the shooting of career criminal James “Jockey” Smith, who died at Creswick on December 5, 1992, when he was shot by a Ballarat policeman outside the Farmers Arms.Follow @JordanHOliver