Sydney crane collapse caught on video An eyewitness has filmed the moment a burning crane snapped on the rooftop of a high-rise building on Broadway in inner Sydney this morning. The video shows part of the crane collapse onto the roof of a University of Technology Sydney (UTS) building near the corner of Broadway and Wattle Street.TWENTY workmen ran for their lives after a 65 metre crane crashed into the University of Technology Sydney this morning. Angry construction workers said they had walked off the job three weeks ago with safety concerns about the crane claiming it was dripping diesel. "We asked for something to be done about it but nothing was done," union state secretary Brian Parker said. A 20 metre boom crashed into the building earlier this morning. The crane is the biggest industrial crane in Sydney's city. The workmen were working on the building when the crane exploded into flames. "The crane was in the air and you just heard the cable snap one by one," a witness told the Daily Telegraph. "The crane then crashed into the building which the guys were working on." 100 people were evacuated from the site and another hundred were evacuated from the area. Emergency crew members said the position where the crane crashed is making it stable. A workman has been injured after he was hit on the shoulder by one of the snapped metal cables. The crane driver ran down from the cabin just 10 minutes before the crane was engulfed by flames. Earlier, eight fire crews raced to Broadway following reports a high crane inside a construction site opposite the university just after 10am. About 1000 litres of diesel which powers the generator sparking the fire caused the cables to snap. About 20 firefighters who attempted to climb the boom to extinguish the flames quickly ran down from the unsafe crane and instead allowed the fire to extinguish itself. At 11am, smoke was still issuing from the crane deck but the flames have since subsided. The top of the crane was on fire and the flames were clearly visible from the ground. "It has the potential to be quite a large fire because of building material nearby,'' a NSW Fire Brigade spokesman.

Sydney's CBD has been thrown into traffic chaos following the crane
fire. Three busses broke down in the city blocking main streets, a truck
blocked main roads in Auburn and a horse strayed across the M4.The
breakdown of three buses on clogged city streets this morning has
gridlocked large parts of the CBD, causing delays of more than an hour.State
Transit buses entering Sydney's CBD from across the Harbour Bridge are
being diverted to North Sydney station, while traffic entering the city
across Anzac Bridge is also affected.Around Wynyard Station,
Clarence Street and Erskine Street were closed for parts of peak hour
after buses struck mechanical failures.

Article Source:Mark Morri
The Daily Telegraph