Fire crews extinguish large blaze in Adelaide's CBD; building's roof collapses

Updated

Hindley Street in Adelaide's CBD has been reopened after a large blaze in a three-storey building brought part of the city to a standstill on Tuesday.

The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) said 20 appliances and about 80 firefighters attended the fire behind the Grand Chancellor Hotel in narrow Schrader Street, between Hindley and Currie Streets.

The MFS said the blaze took hold rapidly inside the Wing Chun martial arts building.

The roof and first floor of the building collapsed at the height of the fire and there was a risk of wall collapses.

MFS Operations Commander David Goreham said MFS personnel would maintain a fire watch overnight.

He said the cause of the fire was still unknown.

"We are unsure what exactly started the fire, but we are very sure that unwanted furniture, such as mattresses etc, were left in a back lane," he said.

"[They] have caught fire somehow, and spread quite rapidly to a car and then into the roof of the premises, which had seaweed as an insulation and that caught fire very quickly.

"We do have concerns with the building, it has partially collapsed, the roof and first floor have.

"So we've evacuated the area, cordoned off the streets and we are maintaining a fire watch overnight."

It took more than three hours for crews to extinguish the blaze.

The Environment Protection Authority confirmed there was no asbestos risk because of the fire.

Thousands of people were evacuated from nearby city buildings at the height of the emergency.

Four people, three of them members of the public and the other a police officer, were treated for the effects of smoke inhalation.

The MFS used aerial equipment on two trucks to help douse the flames from above and firefighters used a hose from one of the hotel's balconies to help tackle the blaze.

Smoke drifted through city streets and fire authorities advised residents and office workers to close windows and doors.

A worker at Baker's Delight in Hindley Street, next door to the hotel, spoke of finding out about the blaze.

"All of a sudden there was just a heap of smoke outside my work," they said.

"The fire brigade and cops have come and they've just told us to evacuate because there's been a fire in a bin apparently behind our building.

"It's really scary because I was working and I didn't know if I was meant to evacuate or not."

Commander Goreham said the building was very badly damaged and would likely need to be demolished.

He said a meeting would be held with Adelaide City Council today to determine what would happen with the building.

"It's very badly damaged, I'm probably suggesting it may be beyond repair and obviously the owner may have to talk to council to come to a resolution somehow."

Earlier on Tuesday police closed parts of King William, Morphett, Leigh and Currie Streets, along with both ends of Hindley Street.

Adelaide Metro said city bus services in Currie Street were disrupted by the emergency and commuters wanting to catch Hills services needed to go to Grenfell Street.

By mid-afternoon, Currie Street was reopened to traffic with a speed limit of 25 kilometres per hour.

Topics: fires, disasters-and-accidents, adelaide-5000, sa

First posted