Northland shopping centre in Melbourne evacuated after fire erupts inside chicken shop
Hundreds have been evacuated from a busy Melbourne shopping centre following a fire in the food court.
Firefighters were called to Northland Shopping Centre in Preston in the city’s north-east shortly before noon on Friday.
Crews arrived at the scene to find a blaze in a chicken shop that had extended into the ductwork.
Firefighters worked swiftly to extinguish the flames as hundreds of staff and lunchtime shoppers evacuated the centre.
The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes.
‘Firefighters remain on scene and are working to ventilate the area,’ a spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
There are no reports of injuries.
Photos and footage shared on social media showed plumes of thick smoke billowing from the shopping centre.
Firefighters remain at Northland Shopping Centre following a blaze that evacuated lunchtime shoppers and staff
Plumes of thick smoke were seen billowing from the centre
One shopper told Melbourne radio station 3AW that his wife was working across the road when she heard an ‘earth-shattering kaboom’ from the food court area.
Another told the station that she was driving to the centre when she saw ‘huge’ plumes of smoke.
‘There’s alarms going off everywhere,’ the woman said.
Shoppers posted online that the food court has since closed for the day.
