Mayfield: Residents evacuated after fire destroys home on Elizabeth and Woodstock streets

Residents of a townhouse allotment at Mayfield spent the night out of their homes after a fire gutted a property on Elizabeth Street.

The cause of the fire that tore through one townhouse and threatened others on the lot, which backs onto Woodstock Street, was still under scrutiny on Thursday, acting Superintendent Peter Murray of NSW Fire and Rescue said.

Firefighters were on the scene well into the night. The fire was contained to the one unit, Acting Superintendent Murray said, but it sustained significant structural damage forcing the evacuation of residents in surrounding units as a precaution.

He said the site had been turned over to property management after the fire was extinguished, and assessments were understood to be under way, but it was unclear on Thursday morning when residents would be able to return.

The first calls raising the alarm came in about 5.45pm, Acting Superintendent Murray said. Emergency services were on the scene within minutes, where they found the two-storey building consumed by fire.

Paramedics were on the scene overnight supporting firefighters, but emergency services reported no one sustained injury and all residents, including two from the destroyed building, were quickly accounted for.

The operation ended about 6.20am, NSW Fire and Rescue said in a statement. A spokesperson for NSW Police said the fire was not being treated as suspicious.

Nine fire trucks, with additional paramedics on standby and local police, responded when the alarm was raised. Two HAZMAT units were tasked with monitoring for potential asbestos risk, though there was no indication it was a factor of concern, the brigade statement said.

The scene was cordoned off on Thursday, with temporary fencing demarcating an exclusion zone around a front wall which had sustained structural damage.

The details of this report are developing. It may be updated.