Gas fault sends fireball into night sky

A fault at a chemicals factory has caused a spectacular fireball to erupt into Sydney’s night sky.

Firefighters rushed to Orica’s plant at Port Botany about 10pm (AEST) on Saturday after a number of local residents reported seeing large flames.

“This flare-up is due to a fault in a boiler, causing excess gas to be burnt off,” a Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman told AAP.

He said the large flames would continue burning for an hour or so, until all the excess gas had burned off.

Firefighters were to remain at the scene to make sure the burn-off went according to plan.

No local residents were in danger.

Former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally was among those to spot the large flames.

She took to social networking website Twitter to share pictures.

“Very possible its a controlled process there at Botany Industrial Park, but it is quite dramatic and far more black thick smoke than usual,” she wrote.

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