A major traffic disruption occurred on Sydney’s Parramatta Road this week as firefighters were called to a blaze at the popular Bath Arms Hotel, Burwood.
Owned by the De Angelis family, the historic inner west hotel broke out in flames around 5:45am on Wednesday.
Commuters called in the fire as smoke billowed from the upper floor of the venue.
Eight fire trucks quickly arrived on the scene as westbound traffic was diverted to Burwood Road.
It took thirty-five firefighters twenty to thirty minutes to contain the blaze, which destroyed one accommodation room at the front of the building.
Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said the occupant had already left for work before the blaze occurred.
“If anyone was inside this would not have been survivable when our firefighters got here,” he said in a video released by FRNSW.
Firefighters forced entry to the fully engulfed room, managing to contain the blaze before ensuring there was no extension of the fire into the roof space.
20 other guests were also safely evacuated after the fire alarms activated, with no reported injuries.
Investigators suspect the cause to be multiple lithium-ion batteries found in the room at what could be the source of the fire.
The occupant returned to the hotel, confirming he had left cheap vape batteries charging.
FRNSW said that even if the lithium-ion batteries were not the source of the blaze, they are extremely flammable and should not be left to charge unattended or while sleeping. These batteries can increase the intensity of a fire as they are extremely volatile.
While the exact source of the blaze is yet to be confirmed, Dewberry said the vape batteries were a “definite area of interest to be looking at”.
In a short Facebook post following the blaze, Bath Arms Hotel confirmed all residents were uninjured and that the hotel was trading as usual.
