A fire engulfed a furniture shop at 135 Upper East Coast Road early yesterday morning.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a series of Facebook posts that it had been alerted to a fire at the furniture shop at 3.33am.

Eleven emergency vehicles and about 35 firefighters were involved. At one point, five water jets were used to get the fire under control.

"The fire which involved contents of a furniture shop was extinguished in about two hours. Damping-down operations are ongoing," said the SCDF.

Residents who had been evacuated by the police and the SCDF as a safety precaution were allowed to return to their homes. There were no reported injuries and the SCDF is investigating the cause of the fire.

Mr Roysten Estrop, 68, was awoken by his wife at 3.45am as she thought something in their house was burning, due to the strong smell of smoke. Smoke had entered their house from their daughter's bedroom window. The retiree, who lives in the nearby Tay Lian Teck Road, said: "From my house, I could see a huge reflection of the fire on the windows of the condominium opposite."

When he went to the scene of the fire, he found that the road had been cordoned off, with some people gathered outside. "The flames were going four to five storeys high," said Mr Estrop. "But it was too dark and far away to tell if there was anyone from the shop inside or around the building."

The main shop sold furniture such as bamboo blinds and he used to purchase items from it, he said. A small space on the land was also rented to a photo framing shop.

In December, a fire broke out at a single-storey furniture warehouse in Sungei Kadut and 25 emergency vehicles and about 90 firefighters were deployed.