A MASSIVE FIRE THIS MORNING IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, has completely destroyed the Swadling’s Timber and Hardware shop in the city’s South Side.

Sydney Morning Herald

When the open-up man arrived at 6:30 am Monday, he heard noises on the ceiling overhead that sounded like an intruder was running around.  When he looked up he saw a thin layer of smoke on the ceiling and immediately called the fire brigade.

When the firefighters arrived the made an initial entry to start an attack on the fire area but were almost immediately met with a flashover that drove them out of the building.  The fire then spread rapidly throughout the building and defensive tactic were deployed.

SMH

As the fire grew, it was fed by hundreds of chemical containers, LPG tanks, pool chemicals and racks of lumber.  By 9 am the walls of the structure were starting to sag.  The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

A Fire Brigades spokesman said engineers were en route to the fire scene to determine which walls could be removed to give fire fighters better access to the blaze.

“We are going to discuss the best way to demolish part of the building to get to these pockets which are still burning,” the spokesman said.

“The whole building will have to be demolished anyway, so we hope this will give us better access to put the fire out quicker.”

The spokesman said there was no chance of other buildings catching alight but a wall at the rear of the warehouse on Jones Lane appeared to be in danger of collapsing.

“If it collapses in then there will be no problem but if it collapses out, the buildings on the other side of the lane might get some superficial damage,” he said.

 
SMH

There are 20 fire companies with 100 firefighters plus a haz-mat team on the scene.

Read more from the Morning Herald HERE.
The News has MORE plus a VIDEO.

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