Thousands watched on as a blaze engulfed a building in Sydney's inner city, describing the moment the ground shook and they felt the flames.
The fire broke out just after 4pm on Thursday afternoon at a heritage-listed building on Randle Street, Surry Hills, bringing the city to a standstill at peak hour.
Thousands of people stopped their journeys home to watch the commotion.
Bystander Grey said he was on the phone at Central station when he saw smoke.
He said the man standing near him called triple-0.
"The craziest thing was seeing the building collapse. It was pretty terrifying," he said.
"From the first crack, I was looking and seeing if it was going to fall into the building or damage the building next to it."
Flames and smoke billowed out of the top of the building and out the windows.
All of a sudden one wall of the building collapsed, with bricks sent flying onto Chalmers Street and screams erupting from the gathered crowd.
"A huge plume of smoke came up and that whole wall just caved in," witness Grace Turner said.
"It was the loudest noise. The ground shook."
Korin Ellis said he came up from Central Station in time to see the building collapse.
"All you could feel when you were standing there was heat on your face from the flames. You could hear tyres exploding," he said.
"I saw a couple of people running and crying," he said, pointing to the nearby residential block.
"The flames were about the size of this hospital here," another woman said, pointing to the nearby building.
"Ten minutes later, the wall just collapsed. It got pretty wild. I was very nervous," she said.
"I was pretty scared when I seen the wall fall. I was going to get out of here. The smoke was very dark and it was really full on."
Fire spread quickly
More than 100 emergency personnel, including police and ambulance officers, and 30 fire trucks were sent to the building, which was once the site of RC Henderson hat factory.
The building was set to be turned into a hotel, according to a development application lodged with the City of Sydney by developer Hanave Pty Ltd in 2019.
The plans stated the adjacent buildings at 7-9 and 15 Randle Street would be knocked down, while 11-13 Randle Street would be retained.
A nine-storey building was set to be constructed across the sites.
Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) Acting Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said they received numerous calls from the public and as they gathered more information on the gravity of the situation, responded accordingly.
He called the fire "significant", saying it was concerning how quickly it developed.
"As trucks [with aerial capabilities] were en route they saw the large volumes of smoke and then made the call to upgrade the resourcing for the fire," he said.
"And subsequently through the operations it's been upgrade to a tenth alarm."
He said they worked with police to evacuate the surrounding buildings, and while there was some "small level of fire spread", no members of the public were injured.
Firefighters work overnight
By about 6pm, FRNSW said the blaze had been contained, with no reported injuries to any members of the public.
"But it will be a substantial and very prolonged duration of firefighting to extinguish the fire completely, so expect that we will be here all night and into the morning."
Emergency personnel are assisting residents of neighbouring properties to find alternative accommodation while risk assessments are conducted overnight.
NSW Police say there are concerns with the structural integrity of nearby properties and decisions about when residents who were evacuated will be able to return will be made on Friday.
James Henderson, the grandson of R.C. Henderson, whose family had owned the building said it was distressing.
"They built this building 1912 and it's been there ever since up until now, which is quite shocking," he told ABC Radio Sydney.
He said his aunt, Elizabeth Henderson, had worked there.
"She's totally beside herself. She's in her mid 90s, so you can't beat someone that tells you about the place who actually worked there as a sales girl."
He said R.C. Henderson's brother-in-law was the architect who designed the building.
"I used to always visit that location just to look at the building because you could look up and you could still see the sign writing R.C. Henderson at the top of the building," he said.
"It kind of gave you that the warm fuzzies as a Henderson to see that and now it's gone."
Surry Hills Police Commander John Duncan said his officers have been working with fire fighters.
He appealed for anyone with information around the cause of the fire to come forward.
“If you’ve got any information as to how this may have occurred, please contact either Surry Hills Police or Crime Stoppers,” Superintendent Duncan said.
