Melbourne City Council's emergency management co-ordinator, Christine Drummond, said that in some units at the La Trobe Street tower, beds were being used by different people throughout the night and day. Way up high: the view from the Metropolitan Fire Brigade's drone. "It was almost like a shift or roster for who slept in the beds at what time," Ms Drummond told a fire seminar this week. There are also concerns that tenants in the building are being mistreated by their landlords. On one occasion a landlady took the hardship relief payments given to residents affected by the fire. The money cards, worth up to $520 for each person, had to be cancelled. Ms Drummond said some of the residents were "pretty much stood over by members of their own cultural community" who they trusted, but who in fact, were "really ripping them off very badly".

It is now suspected that up to three times as many people were living in the Lacrosse building than it was designed for when the fire stuck in November last year. Two-bedroom apartments had up to 15 people living in them, with lounge rooms divided up by shower curtains, the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council seminar was told. An MFB investigation found the Docklands fire started because of a discarded cigarette on an eighth-floor balcony, and was fuelled by both "non-compliant" combustible cladding on the facade and personal items stored on the balconies due to overcrowding. The fire quickly spread from balcony to balcony, scorching 20 storeys of the 23-level building. But recent video footage taken by a drone (or what the MFB called an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) showed the lessons of last November were still to sink in. Many of the outdoor balconies were still piled with furniture, clothing and other items. In an event of another fire, this extra fuel load could again feed a more intense blaze. Although it is understood Melbourne City Council staff are trying to work with the building's managers to fix the problem, city authorities concede they have no way of knowing how many illegal boarding houses are hiding in Melbourne's high-rises.