But the fire spread rapidly from the ground-floor kitchen to the fourth floor and and engulfed the roof of the building, which has long links with Melbourne's Chinese community.

theage.com.au reader Rod Hoad took this photograph of smoke rising from Wing Loong Chinese restaurant from his Russell Street unit. Credit:Rod Hoad

A Chinese restaurant has operated at 11 Heffernan Lane since Wing Ching opened on the site in 1894.

''It was quite an extensive fire. The two top floors were pretty well involved in the fire so we had quite a few people there,'' Mr Garrard said.

''It started in the kitchen area, either food or cooking oil on the stove has caught on fire and it has got up into the duct system into the extraction fans and that's how it's spread right up the building. The floors that the ducting goes through are all wooden and it has just spread very rapidly.