SINGAPORE: A “massive” fire broke out at a terrace house near Little India on Friday (Jul 6) night.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force made a Facebook post at 10pm, saying that they were alerted to a “residential fire incident at 82 Sing Avenue involving a private landed house”.
“Upon SCDF’s arrival, the house was fully engulfed in flames. SCDF resources are currently conducting firefighting operations,” they said.
In a subsequent update 17 minutes later, SCDF said that firefighting operations were still “in progress”.
A video, sent to Channel NewsAsia by reader Eric Ong, showed flames engulfing a unit while firefighters battled the fire.
Alarms could be heard ringing in the background.
In a second video taken by Mr Ong, a man could be heard asking bystanders to “cooperate” as he tried to usher people away from the fire.
A subsequent photo showed that the road was cordoned off by police tape. At least one fire engine could be seen on scene.
Sales manager Chew Boon Yeow told Channel NewsAsia that he was having dinner nearby when the fire started.
“I was having dinner and then some people shouted ‘fire’. The fire was quite big. There were two fire engines and about four police cars,” the 42-year-old said.
Mr Chew added that the fire was at a house that was under construction, and he saw some scaffolding as well.
(Photo: Channel NewsAsia reader)
Twitter user Elizabeth Davis said in a tweet that “lots of emergency vehicles” were at the scene. She called it a “massive fire”.
The 30-year-old content editor told Channel NewsAsia that she saw at least six emergency vehicles on site from her room at the One Farrer Hotel. Ms Davis, who is from London, is on holiday in Singapore.
“There are still emergency services around, but the fire looks like it’s been put out now. There’s just smoke visible there now,” she told Channel NewsAsia at about 10.30pm.
Isabel Areglo, a staff nurse who lives nearby at Mergui Road, told Channel NewsAsia that she saw the fire at about 8.52pm.
“I was on the balcony having a phone call and then I realised smoke was coming from the building,” she said. “I told my housemates and we were thinking what it could be. Then we saw the fire get bigger with a cloud of dark smoke.”
Another Channel NewsAsia reader who lived nearby said that there was a “burning smell” in the air.
“When I looked out of my window some 10 minutes later, I saw smoke and a big fire,” said the reader, who requested to remain anonymous.
