A fire broke out at Blk 141 Yishun Ring Road on Tuesday (June 29) morning, with ten individuals, including a police officer, taken to Singapore General Hospital for smoke inhalation.
Videos of the fire circulating online reveal bright orange flames overwhelming the units on the third, fourth and fifth floors, as the immediate units around it can be seen to be buried in thick smoke.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were alerted to this incident at about 8.30am.
Prior to the SCDF's arrival, roughly 100 residents from the second to tenth floor had evacuated on their own.
Upon arriving on the scene, SCDF firefighters began conducting firefighting operations and extinguished the fire with three water jets. Five off-duty SCDF personnel who happened to be in the area rendered medical and firefighting assistance.
Additionally, the SCDF said that an additional jet of water was sprayed on the exterior of the block to extinguish the fire which was coming out from the bedroom windows.
Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam told The Straits Times at the scene that four units were "completely charred" by the fire – and it started in a unit with an old woman.
"Thankfully, the damages are limited to these four units... Within six minutes (of the fire starting), the fire bikes from Yishun Fire Station were here and within another minute or so the fire engines were here... The fire was brought under control within 10 minutes," he said.
Occupants of the four units have been given shelter at the nearby Chong Pang Community Centre and the Housing Development Board will provide them with temporary housing.
"We have an aging population and fire accidents, I think we need to be careful about that.
We are lucky that there were no fatalities but we will do everything we can to help people," Mr Shanmugam added.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
This article was first published by AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.
Lead image source from Facebook / Alex Ch Sow and Singapore Civil Defence Force.
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