SINGAPORE – A fire broke out at 313@somerset shopping mall along Orchard Road on Thursday (Dec 15) night.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire, which involved the contents of a store room inside a shop on the fourth floor, at around 10.25pm.
The blaze was put out using a single water jet, while the mall’s sprinkler system was also activated, according to an SCDF spokesman.
He added that a woman was taken to Singapore General Hospital after she tripped and fell.
Photos sent in by a Straits Times reader showed SCDF vehicles lined up along Orchard Road at the front of the mall, while another said there was a strong smell of smoke even from outside.
One shopper, who did not want to be named, said that she was headed towards fashion store Forever 21 on the first floor at around 10.30pm when she smelled smoke in the air. She also felt water drip on her head.
Security guards were “running here and there” shouting at people to leave the mall and the fire alarm was activated, she said.
People were running down the escalator, and one woman who looked to be in her 50s collapsed near an escalator outside Forever 21.
She was “semi-conscious, and the staff carried her away”, she said. The woman was understood to be the one taken to hospital.
SCDF said it deployed two fire engines, two Red Rhinos, two fire bikes, an ambulance and five support vehicles.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, said the spokesman.
In October, about 100 shoppers were evacuated from Wisma Atria after a fire broke out in a watch shop on the second floor.
There were three fires at different locations on Orchard Road in March – Tang Plaza, a kitchen at Mandarin Orchard hotel and a salon in Midpoint Orchard.
Last December, there were also a few fires, with two involving Christmas decorations, and one at a restaurant in Lucky Plaza.
Street decorations outside Peranakan Place along the shopping strip caught fire while a Christmas tree outside Knightsbridge mall also went up in flames.
chuimin@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Dec 15, 2016.
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