SINGAPORE - One person was taken to hospital with burn injuries after a stall in Marsiling Lane Food Centre caught fire on Thursday morning.
Videos and photos of the incident circulating online show the inside of a hawker stall engulfed in flames while a man tries to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher.
Lianhe Zaobao reported online that a Teochew fish soup stall had caught fire. The stall owner told the Chinese language news outlet that the fire broke out when two of her employees were preparing ingredients, with one frying eggs.
She said she heard an explosion and saw the stove was ablaze.
Mr Lim Kwee Kim, the owner of a nearby provision shop, told The Straits Times another shop owner had run to his shop, asking for help. He grabbed the fire extinguisher from his shop and ran over. “The fire was quite big, so I shouted for more extinguishers, which a few guys passed to me,” said the 57-year-old. He and other stall owners used about 10 fire extinguishers before the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived about 10 minutes later, said Mr Lim.
The SCDF said it was alerted to the incident at Block 20 Marsiling Lane around 8.20am on Thursday. A water jet was used to extinguish the fire, which involved a kitchen exhaust duct system. Around 40 people had self-evacuated before the SCDF arrived. One person was taken to the Singapore General Hospital with burn injuries.
A preliminary investigation showed the fire had originated from the stove area in one of the affected stalls, said the SCDF.
Four stalls were affected, said Mr Lim, who is chairman of the Marsiling Merchants’ and Hawkers’ Association. The four will be closed for about two weeks, but the other stalls would be open on Friday.
“I think some of the stall owners don’t have the knowledge (to deal with fires),” said Mr Lim. “Maybe the association can help to arrange some basic fire safety courses for them, so that if a fire happens again, they will know what to do, and it can help to cut losses.”
MP for Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC Zaqy Mohamad said in a Facebook update on Thursday evening that the town council is assisting with replacing trunking cables and exhaust ducts, and cleaning up the affected area in the hawker centre.
“We hope that these can be restored soon so that most of the stalls can resume business soon,” said Mr Zaqy, who is also the Senior Minister of State for Manpower.
He added that the stall assistant who suffered “mild injuries” is fine and resting at home.
