Firefighters attempt to put out the blaze.

Firefighters attempt to put out the blaze.
Photo: Nick Moir

We are across the road on the third floor and we can't stand out here on the balcony and look at it - I'm getting burnt, it's that hot

Latest related coverage

Flames ravage warehouse
Firefighters continue to battle a raging blaze in Sydney.

Warehouse up in smoke
Photos: Smoke has billowed across Sydney as a blaze engulfed a timber warehouse.

* Sydney shopping centre evacuated due to fire

Fire engulfed a hardware warehouse in south-eastern Sydney this morning, sending a plume of dense, black smoke into the inner-city sky as dozens of gas cylinders exploded inside.

A major road was blocked off at peak hour while firefighters tried to douse the huge flames.

The fire at the Swadlings Timber and Hardware warehouse, which occupies an entire block near the corner of Shirley Street and Botany Road, Rosebery, started about 6.10am.

About an hour later, the entire 80- by 50-metre warehouse was on fire with stockpiles of timber and chemicals fuelling the blaze.

By 9am the walls of the warehouse were beginning to sag. Frequent explosions could be heard as LPG cylinders, paint thinners, pool chemicals and other substances exploded.

Botany Road has been closed between Queen Street and Harcourt Parade, and the RTA has advised motorists to use Southern Cross Drive instead.

Twenty fire trucks and a hazardous materials team were also at the warehouse.

Engineers on the way

A Fire Brigades spokesman said engineers were en route to the fire scene to determine which walls could be removed to give fire fighters better access to the blaze.

"We are going to discuss the best way to demolish part of the building to get to these pockets which are still burning," the spokesman said.

"The whole building will have to be demolished anyway, so we hope this will give us better access to put the fire out quicker."

The spokesman said there was no chance of other buildings catching alight but a wall at the rear of the warehouse on Jones Lane appeared to be in danger of collapsing.

"If it collapses in then there will be no problem but if it collapses out, the buildings on the other side of the lane might get some superficial damage," he said.

The spokesman said at the height of the blaze, police evacuated about 100 people from the closest apartment complex on Botany Road near the corner of Shirley Street.

"It was a very fierce and hot fire and there was a real threat of windows cracking at the apartments so the decision was made to evacuate them," he said.

Botany Road remains closed and will be for the rest of the day as crews fully extinguish the fire and investigators begin to sift through the rubble.

100 fire fighters and 20 units involved