A fire broke out last night at the Sembawang God of Wealth Temple, engulfing a large portion of the four-storey temple at 28 Admiralty Street.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the incident at about 9.15pm.

As a safety precaution, elderly residents from the nearby Acacia Home were evacuated by the police.

In the process, an elderly resident who said he was experiencing breathlessness was assessed by an SCDF paramedic and taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital by ambulance.

Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the temple as flames raged in the compound behind the main temple sign in a Facebook live stream posted by Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao close to two hours later.

The blaze drew around 40 onlookers, who watched from a safe distance across the canal in front of the temple.

At about 11.30pm, the fire appeared to be extinguished, which drew claps and cheers from those watching.

A blanket of grey-white smoke continued to swirl around the temple's large statue of the God of Wealth.

The SCDF said it used five water jets to penetrate and contain the fire.