Massive fire engulfs Sydney building, residents says 'looked like a movie'

Sydney [Australia], May 25 : A huge fire engulfed a building in Sydney on Thursday, leading to its collapse, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

However, the building was vacant when the blaze started and turned into ashes in a few seconds. People started shouting as enormous pieces of wall and bricks started to tumble to the ground.

According to Fire and Rescue NSW (New South Wales), they now have control of a large fire that destroyed two multi-story buildings in Surry Hills.

They claimed that around 100 firemen from all across Sydney arrived to fight the fire from a safe distance. To prevent the fire from spreading past the two buildings and onto nearby residential units, they employed ladder trucks and drones, reported the Australian publication.

The city of Sydney received a development application in 2019 to convert the heritage-listed property on Randle St into a hotel. It was over 100 years old, according to a heritage impact statement, as per Sydney Morning Herald.

A man who lives in the next building was in bed when, around 4.15 pm (local time), he smelt something metallic burning and heard his building's evacuation alert go off.

Authorities are investigating what sparked a massive fire inside a heritage-listed building in central Sydney on Thursday, after an afternoon of chaos.

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