Fire engulfed an entire coffee shop in Tampines on Saturday (7 August) afternoon, gutting it in mere minutes. The fire is believed to have started at a fish soup stall in the coffee shop located at Block 823A Tampines Street 81.
‘The worker at the fish soup stall ran out immediately, and I tried to put out the fire with another colleague using water,’ he told The Straits Times in Mandarin. ‘But as soon as the water touched the fire, it immediately went higher, engulfing the entire shop.’
Mr Tan said the fire then spread upwards into the vents hanging above and across the entire coffee shop, which has about 15 stalls. ‘I immediately shouted for everyone to run, and as we made our escape, the vents above us exploded multiple times,’ he said. ‘The entire coffee shop was in flames within a minute. This is the first time I have come across such a fire.’
Videos of the incident were shared widely on social media and show thick plumes of smoke rising past the floors of the multi-storey car park above the coffee shop. Other videos of the fire show debris falling from the ceiling of the coffee shop amid the flames, as loud pops are heard.
In a Facebook post, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they were alerted at about 2.15pm: ‘Armed with water jets, SCDF firefighters with their breathing apparatus sets proceeded cautiously into the burning coffee shop to conduct firefighting operations.’
The fire was extinguished with four water jets within an hour, and damping down operations to prevent the fire from rekindling are ongoing.
For more information, please visit: www.straitstimes.com/singapore/fire-engulfs-tampines-coffee-shop-workers-escape-while-vents-explode-above-them
