Concrete block falls off industrial building roof

JTC Corporation has cordoned off the area around an industrial building at 3013 Bedok Industrial Park E after part of the decorative features on a concrete roof came crashing to the ground.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force confirmed that it received a report and found that a block of concrete about 40m long had fallen from four storeys high yesterday morning.

No one was injured.

Work is under way to remove some concrete pieces that are still dangling from the roof of the four-storey building, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said in a statement yesterday.

BCA said it was alerted to the incident, and had asked building owner JTC Corporation to call in a professional engineer for advice on how to remove the dislodged concrete piece.

The engineer will also recommend permanent rectification works and inspect three other adjacent blocks with a similar concrete sunshade design.

A JTC spokesman said investigations are ongoing.

BCA and the engineer engaged by JTC have inspected the main building and assessed that its structural integrity is not affected.

Mr Alan Ong, a director at signboard-making company Gomotex Signcraft Studio, which is located on the first floor of the affected building, said some tenants told him the concrete block fell earlier in the day, between 4am and 6am.

There would hardly have been anyone around at the time because most units at the industrial estate are closed on Sunday, he said.

Mr Ong checked on his shop around 10.30am yesterday.

"When I woke up at about 9.30am and saw (the other tenants') messages, I was shocked. You'd never expect this to happen. Someone could have been hurt if this had happened on a weekday," said Mr Ong, who is in his 50s.

He added that JTC told tenants they had until around 3pm to retrieve important belongings from their units, and after that, they would not be allowed to enter the block. He estimated that at least 20 tenants were there in the morning to collect their items.