Up to 60 people working on sub-levels when fire started in basement of Barangaroo site with likely cause ‘a smouldering piece of steel’
DEMAND for urgent building industry safety inquiry after it was revealed 40 to 60 people were working on the sub-levels of the Barangaroo when the fire broke out.
FORTY to 60 people were working on the sub-levels of the Barangaroo site when a ‘smouldering piece of steel fell to the basement’ sparking yesterday’s fire.
A CFMEU official said it was believed the fire started when steel was being cut with a oxy-acetylene torch and a smouldering part of the steel fell into the basement.
There were 40 to 60 workers in the sub-levels when the fire broke out, including a handful of welders.
All but a handful of plumbers and electricians were sent home and told to return tomorrow following a union meeting this morning.
They were told there was no power or water connected to the site and the large crane would be turned around until it was dismantled and “weather vaned”.
A Lend Lease official told the workers not to speak to the media about yesterday’s incident.
The fire started in the basement of a building under construction before ravaging the base of a 50m-tall crane. Workers ran for their lives amid fears it would topple over.
Thousands of officer workers were evacuated and smoke engulfed the city causing peak-hour traffic chaos.
Building unions are now predicting the fire in the basement area of the Tower 3 construction site at Barangaroo South, which was officially declared out at 11.45am, will delay the project by at least a month.
The CFMEU said there had been numerous incidents at the site recently, with at least four reported in one month over Christmas.
Yesterday’s incident has prompted a call by the union movement for an urgent safety review of all major building sites in the city.
The NSW Opposition went further, saying the NSW Government must order an independent report into government agencies’ preparedness to respond to major incidents that cause traffic gridlock in the CBD and the inner-city.
Unions NSW secretary, Mark Lennon, said the fire is the third major safety scare on a city building site in the past 18 months.
Three workers were injured just a fortnight ago when scaffolding at a building site at Mascot collapsed on to O’Riordan Street.
“Big projects such as Barangaroo and the new Convention Centre have created a spike in the amount of construction work being done. Clearly, not enough safety inspections are happening,” Mr Lennon said.
“This morning I will be writing to the Finance Minister, Andrew Constance, requesting an urgent safety audit of major construction sites across Sydney.
“Community safety is at risk.”
CFMEU State secretary Brian Parker said while the union would work with Lend Lease and WorkCover to get the site up and running as soon as possible, safety was always an issue because there were “unrealistic time frames” set by the company.
Mr Parker said Premier Barry O’Farrell should convene an urgent “roundtable” meeting to discuss the number of safety incidents on the site in recent months.
“All the building unions, including the plumbers, electricians and metal workers, have concerns about a move towards safety self-regulation in the construction industry.
“WorkCover has to oversee these issues. We need WorkCover to be the tough cop on the beat.”
Opposition Roads spokesman Walt Secord and Transport spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said an independent investigation must report on the way government agencies such as Roads and Maritime Services, Transport for NSW and the Traffic Management Centre handled the crisis.
The Western Distributor was closed from 2pm until early this morning after concerns the crane could topple onto the roadway, causing massive traffic snarls and delays to bus services, stranding thousands of commuters for hours.
Parts of Sussex St and Hickson Rd near the epicentre of the blaze remain closed.
“This is not the time for fingerpointing,” Ms Sharpe said.
“It should be time to find out what worked; what did not and how to avoid the city slipping into gridlock every time there is an incident or major emergency in or near the CBD.
All but a handful of plumbers and electricians were sent home today and told to return tomorrow for a 7am meeting at the site.
They were told today that there was no power or water connected to the site and the large crane would be dismantled.
Mr Parker said he expected the fire will delay work at the site by at least a month.
He said Lend Lease has committed to re-locating workers to other sites and that construction sub-contractors will be urged to find other work for their employees.
A firefighter was hospitalised with heat stress overnight and released this morning with Inspector Ian Krimmer saying reports he had a heart attack were incorrect. he is still recovering.
Firefighters worked through the night to contain the blaze which was still burning early this morning.
As it happened: The Barangaroo fire which crippled Sydney
Fire a second blight on Barangaroo building site
Engineers are now assessing when to dismantle the crane in a costly ten-hour operation.
Lend lease’s chief operating officer Dan Labbad said he didn’t know the exact length of time it would set back the Barangaroo project; however he discounted predictions were it could be several months.
He said it was too early to speculate on how much it would cost: “We always allow for contingency in our programming but I don’t want to speculate at this stage.”
In a statement released this morning Lend Lease said independent engineers had assessed the crane and advised it is in a safe condition.
The company still does not have access to the site.
NSW Fire and Rescue’s Superintendent Ian Krimmer said the fire was officially put out at 11.45am, but there are still some small pockets of smouldering material on the site.
“The site is now in the hands of the police for the investigation of the cause of the fire. They will work with our investigators to prepare a report for the Coroner.
“We will have crews on standby until at least this evening, but we are in the prcoess of packing up several kilomtres of hoses and other equipment.”
The Western Distributor and Hickson Rd were closed as more than 100 firefighters battled to control the inferno, which broke out at 2pm. They were last night involved in a delicate “offensive attack” after they managed to finally reach the heart of the fire.
“Any firefighter knows that basement fires are our worst nightmare, there is nil visibility ... it was all touch and feel,’’ Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Ian Krimmer said.
Thermal imaging cameras were being blown apart by the fierce heat.
Mr Labbad said investigators would investigate claims a welding accident may have sparked the blaze. “It’s important at this stage we don’t jump to quick conclusions, we will need to conduct a full investigation,’’ he said.
The fire is the latest disruption to work at the southern end of the 22ha Barangaroo site, where Lend Lease has faced several hurdles, including a controversy over alleged criminal links to contractors at the Harbour-front site.
The three commercial towers under construction will house corporate giants including Westpac and KPMG, while 800 apartments planned for Barangaroo are already fetching million-dollar price tags.
Shelley St’s Vessel cafe manager Nicole Farah said she saw flames rising above the walls surrounding the construction site.
“We were just doing our day to day stuff then the smoke came all of a sudden,” she said.
“Then it got really thick and we saw flames coming over the wall … they must’ve been very high.’’
Large volumes of water were hosed on the base of the crane to simulate a “rainstorm” while crews attempted to move into the basement area to extinguish the fire.
Hazmat crews monitored the smoke plume for possible toxins, while workers and patrons at two nearby hotels were evacuated as a precaution.
The smell of sulphur-dioxide hung over surrounding city blocks and some workers complained of headaches and scurried to find face masks.
Mr Krimmer said he was unsure if the smell was “related to reports of the site’s previous use as a coal mine”.
There were reports that a woman had gone into labour while stuck in traffic near the blocked Western Distributor.
A Transport Management spokeswoman said: “A pregnant woman was taken to hospital, from exactly where we don’t know, but somewhere along the affected corridor on the Western Distributor corridor.”
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