Man dies after unit fire in Meadowbank
A man who was seriously burnt in a unit fire in Sydney’s northwest has died overnight.
NSW
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A 45-year-old man has died in hospital from his injuries after being severely burnt after a top-floor unit caught fire in Sydney’s northwest.
About 3.30pm emergency services raced to the scene after reports of a fire at an apartment block on Angas St, Meadowbank.
A Careflight helicopter flew to the scene and multiple fire crews tackled the blaze.
Residents within the apartment block were evacuated as two crews of firefighters entered the burning unit and rescued one man before passing him into the care of paramedics.
He was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition and later died.
It took eight fire trucks to bring the fire under control by 4.20pm, and no neighbouring units were damaged.
The cause of the fire is not yet clear but investigations by police and firefighters are under way.
Footage of the blaze showed large plumes of smoke billowing from the ninth-floor unit as flames licked at the windows and the edges of the roof.
A large group of onlookers gathered on the side of the road as firefighters and police were seen hurrying about the scene.
Dominika Johnson lives in the building next door to the explosion.
“I heard an explosion. That sounded like just a lot of glass,” she said.
“Then I heard a scream on the balcony and I just saw a ton of metal in the air.
“I just asked (the police) if we can go back into our building, but they told me they don’t know anything yet and they’ll let us know.”
A joint crew of NSW police and firefighters cordoned off the whole of Bay Drive, with a hazardous material response unit on the scene.
David Wagner lives in the unit across from the explosion, and first knew something was wrong when he heard the windows shatter.
“We saw the whole thing, it was just an explosion and then black smoke,” he said, waiting across the street to let back into his home.
“You could hear people screaming for help but there was nothing I could do about that.”
NSW Police have now established a crime scene at the complex, and have urged anyone with information about the fire to come forward.
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