Fire breaks out on roof of factory building in Defu industrial estate; no one hurt
SINGAPORE - A fire broke out on the roof of a two-storey vacated factory in the Defu industrial estate on Monday (1 Feb) afternoon.
The chimney of the factory at 10 Defu Lane 7 had caught fire. Five workers who were dismantling the chimney at the time were evacuated from the building prior to the fire engines' arrival, the SCDF said in a statement.
Nobody was hurt.
The SCDF sent three fire engines, two fire bikes, one Red Rhino and two support vehicles to the location after receiving a call at about 3.45pm. The fire was put out in 30 minutes.
The workers had returned to the building when The Straits Times arrived, but they locked the gates and declined to comment.
Mr Rahman Mohammad Mizanur, 38, who works for Chuan Seng Heng, a hardware and engineering company in the neighbouring building at 12 Defu Lane 7, spotted the fire while on a coffee break at 3.30pm.
After alerting his colleagues to the fire, they left the building to observe it from the outside. One of Mr Rahman's colleagues heard cries of "Fire, Fire" from the neighbouring building, and was told that the fire department had already been called when he went over to provide assistance.
As the fire got bigger, the men went back inside and tried to put out the fire remotely using the fire hose on site, but the water pressure was insufficient to reach the roof, said Mr Rahman.
As a last resort, they splashed water over all the equipment on their side of the building, in case the fire spread over.
"I saw smoke, then fire. It looked like a big fire, but by the time the fire engine came it was very small already," said Chuan Seng Heng driver, Mr Hong Jin Fa.
"There was a lot of black smoke that filled the air," he added. "But luckily, the wind blew in the opposite direction so the fire didn't come over."
SCDF said it is still investigating the cause of the fire.
-- ST