A man has died and a woman has been taken to hospital after she jumped from a third-storey window during a unit fire in Sydney's west.
Just after 7:15pm on Wednesday emergency services were called to Putland Street in St Marys.
Fire and Rescue New South Wales Acting Superintendent Kevin Smith said because of the "graphic information" provided on the Triple Zero (000) calls, nine trucks were sent to battle the blaze.
He said crews arrived within eight minutes of the first call being received and found a unit on the top floor on a three-storey building "completely on fire".
"Chaos would have been an understatement with what firefighters saw there last night,"
he said."When they arrived, firefighters also found a severely injured female resident who had jumped out the bathroom window from the unit that was on fire.
"Fire and Rescue New South Wales firefighters used a ladder to rescue another male occupant from the middle floor of the unit block.
"Firefighters then located a severely injured male with his blood-covered arms hanging out a broken window from the unit that was on fire on the top floor, third level."
Cause under investigation
Acting Superintendent Smith said it took four firefighters to rescue the man and 25 people were evacuated from the building.
They were assisted by NSW Police, who said the woman who self evacuated, believed to be in her 40s, was treated by paramedics before being taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a serious but stable condition.
In a statement, police said Fire and Rescue extinguished the blaze before they recovered the body of a man inside the unit.
"While the body is yet to be formally identified, it is believed to be the one of a man in his 40s," the statement said.
Acting Superintendent Smith said crews had the fire under control within 25 minutes of arriving at the scene.
A crime scene has been established and an investigation is underway.
The cause of the blaze is not yet known.