Fire on luxury Sydney apartment site

An enormous blaze on a luxury apartment site in the Sydney CBD led paramedics to treat 13 people for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters hit a building under demolition in Circular Quay. Picture: John Grainger.

An enormous blaze on the construction site of a luxury apartment building in central Sydney caused commuter chaos this morning and led paramedics to treat 13 people for smoke inhalation.

Around 60 firefighters were sent to the corner of Pitt Street and Alfred Street around 8.45am this morning after reports of a huge fire.

Images on social media showed the material covering scaffolding at the former Gold Fields House at Circular Quay, where a major hotel and apartment block are planned, engulfed in flames several metres high.

WATCH: This is the moment an explosion on a Circular Quay worksite sent thick black smoke into our city's sky #9News https://t.co/nlZs1DFjj6 pic.twitter.com/rtwVH3P810

— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) February 12, 2018

One video showed an explosion at the bottom of the scaffolding. “It was spreading up the outside of the building due to the screening that is around the building that surrounds the scaffolding,” Superintendent Andrew Ticehurst, from NSW Fire & Rescue, said.

“Fire crews then got to work and extinguished the blaze on the outside of the building quite rapidly, but they then had some challenges with the fire which was spreading within the building quite rapidly.”

Supt Ticehurst confirmed gas cylinders and oxyacetylene cylinders exploded during the intense blaze.

“The smoke was toxic but it was going up into the air,” Supt Tincehurst said. “But there was some minor smoke levels down at ground level so that’s why we evacuated a broad area around the site just to prevent any risk of anyone being exposed to that residual smoke.”

Workers from the building that caught on fire wait on the sidewalk. Picture: Sam Ruttyn.

NSW Fire & Rescue confirmed all workers were evacuated from the site and the surrounding as a precaution.

A spokeswoman for NSW Ambulance said passersby with medical conditions are being urged to avoid the area.

“NSW Ambulance has treated 13 people for minor smoke inhalation,” she said. “No-one has been transported to hospital as yet.

“We’re very concerned about the wind and the smoke, and are warning people to leave the area — particularly anyone with a pre-existing medical condition.”

Streets are cordoned off by police as fire crews work to contain the fire. Picture: AAP.

Olivia Mocevakaca, 26, was working nearby when she said explosions shook the wharf.

“When I heard the first boom it was massive it shook the wharf,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

NORMAL SERVICES are resuming around the #CityCircle, and trains are also stopping at #CircularQuay again.
Please continue to allow extra travel time if travelling on @T2SydneyTrains, @T3SydneyTrains or @T8SydneyTrains pic.twitter.com/PZYyGsgc1t

— Trains Info (@TrainsInfo) February 12, 2018

“It started at around 10 to 9am.

“It shook the wharf ... there were four explosions and it shook the wharf.”

She rushed to see what the noises were, and saw “fireballs from the top falling to the ground”.

“It really did vibrate the whole area, we thought a train had crashed,” she said.

The building fire on the corner of Pitt and Alfred streets in Sydney. Picture: Lauren D'Arcy.

The site is set to change hands and be bought by Chinese-backed company Yuhu from a unit of the under pressure Dalian Wanda Group which also sold a project on the Gold Coast as part of a larger $1.1 billion deal.

Luxury apartments and a hotel tower have been planned, making it a $2.3 billion investment when combined with the Gold Coast building. The new owners would like to create tourist destination but it is not known how much damage the fire has caused. The deal is set to be finalised this March.

The Cahill Expressway has been reopened after being closed in both directions, while trains are delayed around the city circle.