Flames shoot from gas bottles in a service station in King Street, Newtown, near the corner of Alice Street. Photo: John Welch, smh.com.au reader

A busy inner-Sydney street is in lockdown and homes and businesses have been evacuated after a fire erupted at a service station.

Gas-fuelled flames shot from the site in King Street, Newtown, near the corner of Alice Street.

King Street was closed between Enmore Road and St Peters railway station but has now reopened. Traffic remains heavy traffic with significant delays.

Flames shoot from the service station in King Street, Newtown. Photo: Martini Cafe’s Facebook page

The fire has been extinguished and a utility company was on site surveying the damage and securing the gas tanks.

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NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Tom Cooper said earlier that crews were trying to contain the blaze, and were concerned about four 300-kilogram cylinders of LPG gas. A 150-metre radius exclusion zone was in place.

“One cylinder has caught fire and the heat has caused the one next to it to vent,” Superintendent Cooper said.

Firefighters stand by as gas bottles in a service station are doused with water to prevent an explosion on King Street. Photo: Fire and Rescue NSW

“Fire crews are continuing to cool the cylinders. There’s a fire coming out of the top of the cylinder, but we’re trying to cool them down.”

Gas escaping from the cylinders was in flames but safety features on the cylinders meant the fire was unlikely to travel back into the cylinders, he said.

The fire caused damage to the service station and Newtown Garden Market, which is next door.

Gas bottles in a service station are doused with water to prevent an explosion on King Street. Photo: Dallas Kilponen

Firefighters from five stations were at the site.

Firefighters would probably spend the next three or four hours fighting the blaze, he said, meaning the busy thoroughfare could reopen just before peak hour.

Northbound motorists being diverted via Sydney Park Road and southbound motorists diverted via Enmore Road, the Transport Management Centre said.

Buses were also being diverted and delayed, with drivers forced to miss some stops.

Mr Cooper said there was no evidence of a link between the Newtown fire and a blaze earlier this month involving several 200-kilogram LPG cylinders that caught alight at a BP service station at Hoxton Park in Sydney’s west.

Rachel Olding, AAP and Stephanie Gardiner