FIRE alarms and sprinklers had been turned off when a blaze, suspected to be caused by a smoking worker, broke out in Australia’s residence at the Olympic athletes’ village.

About 100 Australian athletes and staff were evacuated from the building after the fire started in a basement containing loads of rubbish about 4.40pm Rio time on Friday.

Smoke filled stairwells in the lower floors of the building and, because of silenced fire alarms, officials had to knock on room doors to evacuate team members.

No-one was hurt in an incident which prompted Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller to call an urgent meeting with Rio2016 organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

There has been a small fire in the basement of the team building in the Olympic Village. All athletes and staff were evacuated and are fine — AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) July 29, 2016

The fire brigade were quickly on the scene and the AOC's emergency management plan was put in place pic.twitter.com/NY0a0swduc — AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) July 29, 2016

The cause of the fire is unknown and we have just been let back into the building — AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) July 29, 2016

“What we understand is the fire alarm had actually been silenced in our building while they were doing maintenance work on a building next door, so the alarms and sprinklers didn’t activate,” Chiller told AAP.

“It’s concerning that the fire system had been turned off and that we hadn’t been aware of that.” Chiller said she had earlier raised concerns about widespread litter in the village, and that local contractors and workers had been smoking in the non-smoking venue.

“There is a lot of rubbish around this place, which a lot of countries have been talking about for the last few days, left from contractors, left from workers,” she said.

“There is a lot of smokers and this is my real issue. There’s a lot of workers and contractors smoking in the village and the athletes’ village is a non-smoking venue.

media_camera Australian athletes outside their building following the evacuation. Picture: Twitter

“What we think has happened is that a cigarette has been thrown in a rubbish bin or on rubbish and that is what started the fire.” Chiller last Sunday refused to allow the Australian team to take residence in the village as scheduled because of safety concerns, citing exposed wiring, leaking pipes and blocked toilets.

After emergency repairs, the Australians moved in four days later.

Chiller said the fire evidenced her initial concerns.

“It’s all wrapped into the fact that the village isn’t perhaps as ready as we thought it was,” she said.

“If there is a positive out of it, it’s that we did engage the emergency response plan, everyone was evacuated in a calm and orderly fashion, no-one is injured, and there is plenty of learnings to take.

“I’m heading now into a meeting with Rio2016 and the IOC and we will work to ‘okay, how can we improve things this second.”