A massive blaze gutted an abandoned hat factory in central Sydney and forced emergency services to evacuate people from nearby apartment buildings before firefighters brought the inferno under control, without any casualties reported.
Over thirty firetrucks and 120 firefighters fought the fire in the seven-story building close to Sydney's central railway station on Thursday afternoon, according to New South Wales Fire and Rescue Acting Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell.
Hundreds of people emerging from the busy station watched from safety as the fire-baked walls collapsed onto streets that had been cleared earlier by emergency personnel.
