Real-World Fire Event at Gateway Shopping Centre, Circular Quay

Client: DEXUS Location: Gateway Shopping Centre, Circular Quay, Sydney Fire Engineer: Horizontal Fire Curtain

Project Background

The Gateway Shopping Centre at Circular Quay is one of Sydney’s busiest commercial and retail destinations, located at the heart of a precinct that attracts millions of visitors each year. More than ten years ago, as part of a major redevelopment of the building, Greene Fire was engaged to supply and install a horizontal fire curtain to protect the ground floor of the retail precinct. The project was part of a performance-based fire safety strategy prepared by Arup to address the challenges of large interconnected spaces, oversized compartments, and high occupant loads.

The fire engineering strategy adopted for the Gateway involved a combination of fire curtains and Tyco wetting sprinklers to provide effective fire compartmentation where traditional construction methods were impractical Greene Fire’s horizontal curtain was specified to achieve a fire resistance level of -/120/-, and was integrated with the building’s wider detection, alarm, and suppression systems. This ensured that in the event of fire, the curtain would deploy to contain smoke and fire spread, while allowing for staged evacuation through controlled descent programming.

Real-World Fire Event

In 2024, more than a decade after its installation, the fire curtain was put to the test during a serious incident at the Gateway Shopping Centre. A blaze broke out in a kitchen on one of the upper levels, quickly spreading smoke throughout the building. According to Fire and Rescue NSW, over fifty firefighters responded to the event, with large-scale evacuations carried out across the precinct. The incident attracted widespread media coverage given the prominence of the location and the scale of the emergency. During this fire, Greene Fire’s horizontal curtain performed as designed. The system deployed to contain smoke and limit the downward spread of fire, supporting safe evacuation of staff and members of the public. While the curtain sustained heavy damage, including water ingress into the control systems, holes in the fabric from heat exposure, and contamination from smoke, it successfully maintained compartmentation during the critical early stages of the emergency. Its performance validated the original fire engineering strategy and demonstrated the reliability of Greene Fire’s curtain technology in a genuine fire scenario.

Replacement and Installation Challenges

Following the incident, Greene Fire was once again engaged to replace the damaged curtain. Unlike the original installation, which was carried out as part of the redevelopment program, the replacement required working around an active and fully operational retail centre. This introduced significant logistical challenges. The curtain’s location within a busy area of the centre meant that all work had to be undertaken overnight in narrow shutdown windows, avoiding disruption to the thousands of visitors who use the precinct each day. The presence of multiple restaurants and food tenancies around the curtain required extensive coordination. Services, ceilings, and bulkheads had to be dismantled and reinstated to allow for the removal of the damaged product and installation of the new curtain. The complexity of the task demanded close collaboration with the centre’s management, contractors, and tenants to sequence the works effectively while maintaining safety and compliance standards. Despite these constraints, Greene Fire successfully delivered the replacement on time, restoring and upgrading the building’s fire safety system.

Outcome

The Gateway project provides a rare and valuable case study for Greene Fire. Unlike most installations, which may never face a real fire event, this curtain was directly exposed to a major incident and performed exactly as designed. It prevented further spread of fire and smoke, supported occupant evacuation, and enabled firefighters to bring the blaze under control without catastrophic damage to the building. This case study highlights both the proven effectiveness of Greene Fire’s fire curtain systems and the company’s ability to manage technically demanding installations in some of Australia’s most complex and high-profile environments. The successful replacement after the fire further demonstrates Greene Fire’s commitment to long-term client support and the continuous delivery of high-performance fire safety solutions.