Fire at Q1 Gold Coast forces road closures, hundreds to evacuate

A fire in a rubbish bin that smoke logged Surfers Paradise supertower - the Q1 - hospitalised nine people, forced hundreds to evacuate and closed surrounding streets. See video with evacuees

A rubbish bin fire that smoke-logged the Gold Coast’s tallest supertower - the Q1 - left 19 people needing medical assistance, hospitalised nine and forced hundreds to evacuate .

Emergency services, including multiple fire crews, rushed to the Q1 resort and spa bordered by Hamilton Ave and Clifford Street at 7am on Monday after being alerted to a fire.

Hundreds of residents ended up making hasty exits, revealing smoke was “bellowing” from stairwell doors on certain floors, with people in the upper reaches - including the 23rd, 54th and 72nd floor all reporting seeing smoke flooding the hallway from a stairwell.

54th floor resident John Wilson said he had smelt smoke inside his apartment and went to investigate in the hallway: “Smoke was just bellowing out of the right hand side. It was thick.”

He eventually made his way down with family members via a service well whilst Toowoomba visitor Wendy said she also saw and smelt smoke on the 72nd floor.

“There was smoke and I’m an asthmatic. We were worried because there was smoke coming from the stairwell,” she said, adding she legged it down 72 flights of stairs. “I may as well have run the Gold Coast Marathon.”

Q1 resident Dan Eagles posted to social media: “People are trapped/stuck above the fire, it’s awful”.

“I opened my door and smelled the smoke and got the f**k out,” Mr Eagles said at the scene.

“I’m on level 21, everyone was rushing downstairs. I grabbed the cat and left.”

Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor Cary Strong said 19 residents were assisted by paramedics with nine taken to three different hospitals including Robina and Gold Coast University Hospital.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the Q1 high rise on the Gold Coast following a fire.

“The nine hospitalised ranged in age from a five month old with smoke inhalation fears and someone in their late 80s,” Mr Strong said.

“A further seven people are still being further assessed and if deemed to be OK we’ll release them to go home.

“The five month old had a bit of smoke inhalation - there were fears from the parents.”

All were in a stable condition.

QAS taking their youngest patient, five-month-old Bronte, for a check up.

Gold Coast southern firefighting command Glenn McKissack, speaking at the scene, said rubbish had caught fire in a large metal industrial bin on the Q1 ground floor loading dock.

It was unclear how it started but “would be investigated”.

“Smoke from that went up the garbage chute in the building and caused the building to become smoke logged,” he said.

“The smoke wasn’t too bad - some floors were worse than others. Mainly it was light smoke.”

The Q1 resort and spa building in Surfers Paradise. Picture: Ryan Keen

Mr McKissack said some residents had stayed inside while others evacuated of their own accord but were not required to.

“We had a few people with mobility issues who found themselves stuck in a stairwell and (firefighters) had to assist,” he said.

Two dozen-plus firefighters had attended.

“People are free to go back in. The building is all clear,” Mr McKissack said soon after 9am.

In a statement later, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services’ (QFES) Fire Investigation Unit said it was currently finalising its investigation into the cause of the structure fire: “QFES’ Community Safety Operations Unit is working with building management to ensure their owner-occupier requirements are met.”

People evacuated after a fire in the Q1 building. Picture: Ryan Keen

“People (were) walking down the fire exit with their dogs and came to the cafe across the road.

“Apparently one of the fire escapes is fully blocked because of smoke so they had to use a secondary one.

“On level 48 or something apparently you couldn’t see anything because the smoke was that thick.”

Resident Kye Gill, 20, who lives on the 23rd floor with Phoebe Scherrer, 22 said the pair were asleep when the alarm sounded and initially they didn’t take it seriously.

Kye Gill and Phoebe Scherrer. Picture: Ryan Keen

But when they opened their apartment door to the hallway and saw “people running around” they realised it was an emergency.

“I thought it was a false alarm. Then I opened our door and there were people running around our floor,” Mr Gill said.

Ms Scherrer said at that point they opened the service stairwell door and “smoke came out and that was scary”.

Mr Gill said: “We started panicking a bit at that point and went to the other stairwell and legged it down 23 floors. We were one of the first ones out. There were only about five people down at that stage. We have been chilling here since.”

Q1 resident Jim Vimer waiting outside the Q1 reception after being evacuated down the service lift at 7.30am. Picture: Ryan Keen

Q1 resident Jim Vimer, 84, who lives in the 14th floor, said the building alarm went off at 7am before evacuation orders to leave immediately via the service lift.

“It said very quickly get out of the building. Everybody had to get out,” he said.

“There was smoke in the hallway. You couldn’t avoid it.”

Police had blocked all traffic at Clifford St and Surfers Paradise Boulevard.

They urged motorists to follow police directions.