Fire blaze casino

• In short: A laundromat and Chinese restaurant in Casino, northern NSW, have suffered "total roof collapse" after a fire broke out this morning.
• Firefighters took about three hours to bring the blaze under control but are still working to ensure it's fully extinguished.
• What's next? Firefighters and police will work together throughout the day to determine the cause of the fire.

Fire and Rescue NSW says two shops have been destroyed by a blaze in the state's north overnight.

Firefighters were called to Walker Street in Casino about 2:30am to find a "well-developed" fire in a laundromat and Chinese restaurant.

"We currently have crews external to the building trying to put the fire out, but we've had a lot of difficult getting in," Acting Superintendent Richard Gibb said.

"We have a drone in the air and it's confirmed that we have total roof collapse in those two affected shops."

Seven fire trucks and about 20 firefighters worked to contain the flames overnight.

Acting Superintendent Gibb said there were no reports of injuries and the fire had been contained to the two shops.

The blaze was brought under controlabout 5:30am and has since beenfully extinguished.

Retained firefighter Connor Shephard said it was a challenging situation with "heavy smoke" in the street, but a drone gave firefighters a "great advantage" to keep the neighbouring buildings safe.

"We can see thermal hotspots, we can see where our water's got to go," he said.

"The ability to see above our fire scene is very critical, especially because we couldn't see on the roof and we couldn't see inside the building because we had a lot of roof collapse."

The building is being assessed by structural engineers.

Acting Superintendent Gibb said firefighters would work with police throughout the day to determine the cause of the blaze.

Neighbour's triple-0 call

JaidynHeadford was living in a neighbouring building when the blaze broke out.

"I was up late at night as usual, and I heard noises on the roof and I thought there were people trying to break into the shop that I'm living in," he said.

"Later on I came out to the back parking lot and saw fire on the Chinese restaurant roof, also the laundromat [so] I woke my neighbours up and dialled triple-0 fire brigade."

Mr Headford also evacuated a few key belongings as a precaution, including his cat Sunny.

"I was trying to find him, I thought he was outside but it turned out that he was under my bed, so I ... put him in the cage and took him outside with some of my stuff," he said.

"He's a bit frightened."