Residents evacuated an apartment tower on Queensland's Gold Coast on Tuesday morning after a fire broke out on a seventh-floor balcony. Emergency crews were called to the Pacific Keys Central Building on Hooker Boulevard in Mermaid Waters just after 10am, with the blaze contained to a single unit and extinguished within around 20 minutes, preventing wider damage to the building.

Eight fire crews attended the scene, and two people — a man in his 30s and a woman in her 80s — were treated by paramedics for minor smoke inhalation before being taken to hospital in stable condition, at Robina Hospital and John Flynn Private Hospital respectively. A witness in a neighbouring building filmed flames billowing from the unit, and Queensland Fire Department has confirmed an investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.