SINGAPORE: Dozens of firefighters were deployed early on Sunday (Mar 17) after a massive fire broke out at Geylang Road.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the blaze at 643 Geylang Road at about 1.10am. Firefighters arrived at the scene to find the raging fire spreading to a row of double-storey shophouses.
“SCDF quickly deployed its resources around the affected area to contain the fire,” it said in a Facebook post.
There were no reported injuries, SCDF added in its final update.
“Due to the structure of the shophouse units which share a common roof, as well as the high density of furniture and other combustible materials stored in some of the units, the fire had spread quickly from unit to unit.
Seven shophouse units were on fire with five of “fully engulfed in flames”, according to SCDF.
A video of the fire sent to Channel NewsAsia showed several-storey-high flames engulfing the shophouses as SCDF firefighters battled the blaze. At one point an explosion was heard.
Seventeen emergency vehicles and about 60 firefighters had been deployed to combat the inferno, which took about three hours to extinguish.
“At the height of the operations, nine handheld jets and three water monitors from the aerial appliances were used to bring the fire under control,” SCDF said.
There were no reported injuries, SCDF added.