SINGAPORE - A fire broke out in a room on the 17th floor of a high-rise building above Farrer Park MRT station on Wednesday (Dec 7) night.

According to eyewitnesses, the building is believed to be the Park Hotel Farrer Park, which is still under construction. It is slated to open in the first quarter of 2017.

There were no reported casualties. About 20 workers in the building self-evacuated before the arrival of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

SCDF said the fire, which was extinguished using a single water jet, involved carpentry work inside the room.

Photos and a video sent in by The Straits Times readers showed flames leaping out of the building.

Administrative executive Sheefaya Aiman, who lives on the 19th floor of a HDB block about 10 minutes' walk away, said she first noticed the fire at around 7.40pm.

"The fire looked really fierce and thick, black smoke was rising from the top of the building," she added.

Mr Thanga, a construction worker on the site who was not working on Wednesday, told The Straits Times that the hotel was almost completed, with "just little things left".

According to him, about 350 workers were deployed at the site, although it was unclear how many were present when the fire broke out.

Mr Michael G, 53, who runs a restaurant nearby, said: "As soon as there was smoke, the workers started coming out of the building. We could see the fire from down here."

An SCDF spokesman said it was alerted to the fire at 1 Farrer Park Station Road at around 7.29pm, and dispatched two fire engines, two red rhinos and six support vehicles to the scene.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.