At least two people were initially trapped in a Darwin CBD building Wednesday afternoon after a fire broke out on the 10th floor of the Cavanagh Street structure, but the pair were able to get out with no injuries reported.
Firefighters were called to the scene of the fire around 2pm, along with NT Police and St John Ambulance, with Cavanagh Street closed to deal with the emergency response.
One of the trapped residents told ABC Radio Darwin she saw black smoke with a toxic smell after opening the door to leave the building and decided it was safer to stay in her unit.
“The scary thing was that because I couldn’t see past the smoke, I didn’t know where the fire was coming from, so it felt safer to close the door and stay inside,” Lyma Nguyen said.
“I was concerned that even with the door closed, the fire could come through. We were sort of monitoring the streets, seeing that the fire brigade were on their way. We were looking to see what was happening on the outside and how quickly…[we could] get some assistance.”
Ms Nguyen added the smoke had a plastic smell to it that made her feel “lightheaded”.
She said after waving to firefighters, “there was a problem”.
“The intercom wasn’t working and that was causing them to have some difficulties getting up,” she said. “The intercom in my building hasn’t worked for nearly a year, a major concern that has been reported to the body corporate many times, but it hasn’t been fixed.”
Firefighters eventually made it to the 10th floor and escorted Ms Nguyen and her associate Mark Thomas to the street.
Fire crews searched surrounding apartments and were able to extinguish the flames before other units caught alight.
No injuries were reported, but Fire and Emergency Services made no mention in its release of the people stuck on the 10th floor.
“I’d like to thank the public for their quick report, which enabled our crews to respond quickly, and ensure the fire did not spread to surrounding properties,” District Fire Officer Eric Koomen said.
“Our crews did an amazing job to contain the fire to the one residence.”
The cause of the fire is now under investigation, officials said.
That unamed building would’t be that controversial, whore house friendly, housing people of ill repute, on Cavanegh Street would it?
We didn’t start the fire.
When cocaine is processed into a crystal form, it can be smoked in a pipe—this is called crack cocaine for the crackling sound it makes when heated.5 Some have reported that the smell from smoking crack is similar to burnt plastic or chemicals.