‘Perfect’ Evacuation At IBM Building In Brisbane After Fire At 13th Floor

The IBM building in Brisbane was evacuated after a fire had broken out on Tuesday afternoon. The high-rise building is situated at 348 Edward St.

Hundreds of workers were moved out of the building after the fire. According to an IBM spokesperson, all the employees at the company are safe and “accounted for.” Around 50 people stayed in King Edward Park after the evacuation.

No injuries have been reported while the reason behind the fire remains unknown. The fire started on the 13th floor at around 12.30 pm. Fire alarm went off and the evacuation process started soon after.

"We evacuated the building and it took a small amount of time to discover the fire was in the ceiling space of the building," Brisbane Times quoted Queensland Fire Inspector Mark Welsh, "We're scaling down and doing a secondary search of the building to ensure everyone is out and nobody has been injured by the fire on the 13th floor."

Welsh said that the sprinklers had been activated in the building and helped firefighters extinguish the fire. According to the inspector, the fire damage was relatively minimal while excessive smoke turned out to be problematic.

The fire inspector added that it was going to be more water damage and smoke damage rather than fire damage in the building. Ambulances as well as 12 fire trucks arrived to the scene. Harburg Investments, which owns the IBM building, said that it was possible to contain the fire to the plant room on the 13th floor.

A spokesman assured that the building was safe. He said that there were minor property damages on the floor with no reported injury.

Courier Mail reported a MultiRAE had been used to announce to declare that the scene was safe. Most of the officials along with equipment left the scene by 4 p.m. while investigators would go back to the scene on Wednesday morning.

The IBM employees have not been allowed to talk to the media. However, according to one witness, the evacuation process was perfectly executed. However, the employees may not get back to work on Wednesday.