2 dead after fire breaks out at Kaki Bukit industrial building

SINGAPORE – Two men died following a fire at an industrial building in Kaki Bukit on Sept 19.

In a Facebook post that day, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at 25 Kaki Bukit Road 4 at about 12.55pm.

Firefighters from Paya Lebar Fire Station and Tampines Fire Station arrived and found a unit on the fifth floor of the building ablaze.

Two men, aged 51 and 65, were found unconscious inside a unit opposite the burning one.

The firefighters performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on them and they were taken unconscious to Changi General Hospital.

The men later died from their injuries, the police said. 

SCDF said the whole floor was smoke-logged and the blaze was extinguished with two water jets.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, it added.

The police said they do not suspect foul play based on preliminary investigations and that investigations are ongoing.

According to a Google search, the building, Synergy @ KB, houses several automotive businesses.

When ST arrived at around 3pm, hundreds of workers were sitting by the side of Kaki Bukit Road 4.

The police had cordoned off the roads leading to Synergy @ KB.

A worker who did not wish to be named said he fled his office on the eighth floor with nine colleagues, including one who is five months pregnant.

“It was a big one and the fire engulfed the affected unit. The flames extended to the sixth floor,” said the car dealership worker.

The 26-year-old pregnant woman, Ms Sharon Kwek, said she suffered no injuries and the fire was extinguished quickly.

Bangladeshi worker Das Manik said he was on the third floor of the building when the fire alarm went off just before 1pm.

The 33-year-old, who works at a carpentry firm, said his supervisor shouted at him to leave, and they fled the building.

ST has contacted Synergy @ KB for comment.

In 2023, there were 106 fires involving industrial premises, a 24.3 per cent drop from 140 such fires in 2022, according to SCDF’s annual statistics in 2023.

These were among the

1,954 fires SCDF responded to in 2023.

In November 2022,

an elderly couple

, both 78, died after a fire at Rivervale Crest condominium.

In May 2022, three people, including a three-year-old, died in a fire that

broke out in the living room

of a flat in Bedok North.