A fire broke out at a four-storey industrial building at 8 Tagore Drive in the early hours yesterday.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) mobilised 16 emergency vehicles and 50 firefighters to the scene after it was alerted to the fire at 12.20am.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus sets and armed with water jets inched their way into the building to locate the fire and any person trapped inside.

The building, which was heavily smoke-logged, had poor visibility, SCDF said. Three water jets were used to bring the fire under control, and it was extinguished at 8.15am.

The source of the fire, which SCDF described as "deep-seated", was within a fourth-floor storage-space-cum-office area measuring about 20m by 15m.

"The fire involved extensive items of combustible materials, such as household items and electronic products, in carton boxes of varying sizes stacked vertically from the floor to the ceiling," SCDF said.

Thirteen occupants of the premises evacuated before SCDF's arrival. No injuries were reported.

Damping-down operations were carried out at the scene. Damping down refers to the application of water on wet burnt surfaces to prevent a rekindling of the fire from such hot surfaces.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Malavika Menon