A fire broke out on Jurong Island yesterday shortly before 3pm amid heavy rain.
The rising plume of black smoke could be seen from about 2km away, a reader who works at Tuas told The New Paper.
The reader, who declined to be named, said he could not smell the smoke from that distance, but could see “explosions”.
He estimated that the flames went up as high as 60m.
An engineer who works on Jurong Island said he felt his office shake slightly, but thought it was due to the stormy weather.
It was only when his colleague saw the fire from a window that he realised it was something more serious.
“My project manager told us, ‘If you don’t feel safe, you can leave the site.’
“Most of us chose to leave,” said the 26-year-old.
Although they were scared, they “managed to remain calm” and evacuate the island with their belongings, he said.
BLACK SMOKE
He said there was “a lot of black smoke”, although the fire looked quite small from his office, which is about 300m from the site.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said on its Facebook page that the fire at Tembusu Road on Jurong Island involved a tank containing light crude oil.
The tank measured about 40m in diameter and 20m in height.
“Upon SCDF’s arrival, the fire was raging and the in-house company emergency response team (Cert) was already fighting the fire with ground water monitors,” the statement said.
“The intensity of the fire caused the affected tank to fold and buckle.”
The affected tank was contained within a bund wall that measured 100m by 150m.
SCDF deployed its large foam monitor, which can shoot about 22,700 litres of water per minute, to fight the fire.
At the same time, it used several ground water monitors and fixed drencher systems to cool down two nearby oil tanks.
In all, about 150 SCDF officers and 38 vehicles were deployed.
One member of the Cert team was taken to the National University Hospital for heat exhaustion.
SCDF said in another Facebook post that the fire was extinguished at 7.45pm.
“This operation was a race against time in view of the tank that has buckled and on the need to prevent the intense fire from spreading to its immediate surroundings,” the post said.
marielim@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on April 21, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.
