Sydney fire: Huge flame from Botany plastics factory

Fire and Rescue NSW has been inundated with calls after a huge flame shot into the sky from a plastics factory in Sydney’s south.

Fire and Rescue has been inundated with calls after a huge flame shot into the sky from a Botany plastics factory.

The flames and smoke could be seen across the area with the plastics factory describing it as an “elevated flaring due to a power outage”.

Flames from the chimney stack on Wednesday morning in the Botany industrial park. Picture: 7 News

The burn off began about 9.30am at the Qenos Olefines Plant and Fire and Rescue NSW confirmed it had been “resolved” by 10.40am.

Fire and Rescue NSW said the excess gas was being burnt off through a chimney stack at the site and “creating a large flame and black smoke (which) was visible from some distance”.

Fire and Rescue received a high number of calls in relation to the burn off with people believing it was a house or building fire.

The flames could be seen from surrounding suburbs. Picture: NSW Fire and Rescue

The incident set social media alight with videos and pictures shooting up on community pages.

One person wrote on Facebook “welcome to Botany”.

Qenos shared on Facebook more information about the incident.

“The Qenos Olefines Plant experienced elevated flaring due to a power outage,” the post read.

Flames from the industrial site. Picture: Danny Said Facebook

“The flare system is a safety mechanism that is used to eliminate excess waste gas within our network that cannot be recovered or recycled and usually occurs sporadically at our site.

“This phenomena can be bright, noisy and smokey but usually only lasts for a short time.

“The flaring may be visible from various locations around the Botany/Hillsdale area as well as areas located further around Sydney.”