Fire rips through scaffolding in Sydney

A group of scaffolders in Sydney, Australia, ended the month of May in an extremely dramatic fashion, after scaffolding that they were working on caught fire and rapidly travelled up the entire height of the building in just a few short minutes.

The office building in question, located near to the New South Wales Supreme Court and state parliament, was undergoing work after cladding had been removed from the outside of the building, due to concerns of their safety following the deadly blaze at Grenfell Tower in London in 2017.

The plastic sheeting surrounding the scaffolding caught fire at around 8am and rose through each level in a very short space of time. To avoid the flames, workers quickly climbed the scaffolding in an attempt to reach safety.

Reports state that twenty people were evacuated from the building, with several treated for smoke inhalation. Fortunately, there were no fatalities from this incident, however it was noted by the Fire & Rescue NSW Commissioner, Paul Baxter, that this incident could have had a ‘dramatically different’ outcome had the cladding still been in place on the building.

Take a look at the video below to see the sheer extent of this dramatic blaze.

It is still unclear how the blaze began in the first place; an investigation is underway to determine the cause.