A man is in hospital with life-threatening injuries and two buildings are severely damaged as a large fire burns in Brisbane's inner south-east.

The blaze broke out at about 4:30pm at a single-storey commercial building on Woolloongabba's Hubert Street.

Two buildings were still on fire and 13 crews were on the ground as of 9pm, and a third building was affected by smoke, according to the Queensland Fire Department. 

An exclusion zone has been set up and surrounding roads are closed.

The man is at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with airway burns, Queensland Ambulance Service said. 

Nobody else required treatment. 

People within the exclusion zone, which takes in Gibbon, Stanley, Raid and Hawthorne Streets, are asked to stay inside until told otherwise.