Fire incident involving oil tank at Jurong Island

• QX179R

  20 Apr 16, 20:22

  Oil tank catches fire on Jurong Island
  
  

  SINGAPORE: An oil tank caught fire on Wednesday afternoon (Apr 20) on Jurong Island, sparking a massive fire-fighting operation involving 150 Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers.

  
  

  
  

  SCDF said it was alerted to the incident at 23 Tembusu Road at 3pm. Channel NewsAsia understands the tank belongs to the company Jurong Aromatics Corp. Upon SCDF officers' arrival, the in-house company emergency response team (CERT) was already fighting the fire with ground water monitors. One of the CERT members was sent to the hospital due to heat exhaustion.

   

  
  

  The storage tank, containing light crude oil, measured about 40 metres in diameter and 20 metres in height. The blaze was also visible from the sea. SCDF said the fumes were not toxic.

  
  

  
  

  According to a witness who works on Jurong Island, the fire happened at around 2.45pm. “It was raining heavily and there was a thunderstorm. We felt the building shake,” Mr Faris Rahman said.

  
  

  
  

  He added: “We thought it was just the lightning but we saw black smoke and flames coming out from a few 100 metres down the road. One of the oil tanks was on fire.”

  
  

  
  

  Mr Faris said the oil tank was engulfed in flames and half of it had "melted". “Our project manager told us can leave the site if we don’t feel safe. About an hour later, an official word was given to our office to evacuate Jurong Island.

  
  

  
  

  At about 5.30pm, the flames and smoke seemed to have died down when viewed from Jurong West, a Channel NewsAsia cameraman reported. 

  
  

  
  

  In an update on Facebook at about 6.30pm, SCDF said the tank on fire was contained within a bund wall measuring 100m by 150m, and it said the intensity of the fire had caused the tank to fold and buckle.

  
  

  
  

  SCDF added that fire-fighting operation was expected to be a "prolonged operation". It has deployed a large foam monitor to mitigate the fire, as well as several ground water monitors and fixed drencher systems to coll down two nearby oil tanks.

  
  

  
  

  Photos and videos sent to Channel NewsAsia showed flames shooting up and plumes of smoke filling the air.

  
  

  
  

  - CNA/ek
• QX179R

  20 Apr 16, 20:24

  

  The tank folded because of the intensity of the fire. (Photo: SCDF)

• QX179R

  20 Apr 16, 20:26

  

  SCDF said the fire-fighting operation is expected to be "a prolonged operation". (Photo: SCDF)

• QX179R

  20 Apr 16, 20:38

  The 5-hour long operation at 23 Tembusu Road was extinguished at 7.45pm

  -- @SCDF