Firefighters are working to put out a fire on a crane in an inner Sydney construction site after its boom collapsed onto a building.
Around 100 workers from the building site at Ultimo and another 100 from surrounding buildings including the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have been evacuated after the fire broke out on the crane shortly before 9.40am (AEDT) on Tuesday.
The fire has closed Broadway, causing major traffic delays on the key bus and commuter route.
A UTS staffer said she could see "flames bursting out of the platform" on the Lend Lease crane.
She told AAP she had seen smoke then noticed a "very nasty burning smell" before the alarms went off and people were evacuated.
A colleague had reported hearing a bang then seeing oil dripping from the crane, she said.
The crane operator had made it safely down from the crane and was being medically assessed, Fire and Rescue NSW acting superintendent Josh Turner told AAP.
He said there was some shaking of the crane tower when the boom collapsed, forcing emergency crews to withdraw to a safe distance.
The fire was contained within the cabin and fire crews were attempting to position ladder platforms nearby to better tackle the blaze, Supt Turner said.
"The priority is maintaining the stability of the crane," he said.
The crane is at a building site on Broadway.
The crane is at the UTS Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology construction site on the corner of Broadway and Wattle Street.
A Lend Lease spokesman said a team had been sent to assist emergency workers and try to determine how the fire started.
"It's unusual, very unusual," he told AAP.
No one has been reported injured as a result of the incident.
The fire was subsiding but firefighters were unable to approach the cabin because of fears about the stability of the crane, Acting Supt Turner told Fairfax radio.
Construction Forestry Mining and Engineering Union NSW secretary Brian Parker said he was concerned that nothing had been done when the union previously raised concerns about fuel leaking from the crane.
The leak was reported after the site was shut down for a four-day safety inspection, he told reporters.
"The unfortunate thing is (Lend Lease is) saying to us that some of the documentation lies in the cabin of that crane, which is going to go up in flames, so they can bury their mistakes on this issue," he told reporters at the scene.
Last month a Lend Lease crane on a skyscraper building site in New York was buckled by savage winds caused by Hurricane Sandy and dangled precariously 74 storeys above Manhattan.
Mr Parker said the fire was caused by a lack of maintenance on the crane.
"Somehow the crane has caught fire, given the fact that it's got a number of leaks within the motor, fuel has dropped onto something that's created a fire.
"It's pretty clear you need to have your maintenance regime up to date and unfortunately the company haven't done that after we've done an intensive safety walk, bought things to their attention they've failed to deal with them."
The site will be closed for "a significant period of time", Mr Parker said.
"We will not be opening this particular job until we're satisfied that the safety and the maintenance regime ... have been looked in to," he said.
He also said the corner of Broadway and Wattle Street will be shut for at least another day as the crane is dismantled and taken away.
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