VIDEO, PICTURES

SMRT taxi catches fire outside JCube shopping mall

An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's e
An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes. -- ST PHOTO: YEO SAM JO
An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes. -- ST PHOTO: YEO SAM JO
An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes. -- PHOTO: LUCY WANG
An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes. -- PHOTO: BENJAMIN TAN
An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes. -- PHOTO: BENJAMIN TAN
An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road. The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes. Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes. -- PHOTO: BENJAMIN TAN

An SMRT taxi caught fire on Tuesday evening in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force received a call at 7.59pm and dispatched one fire engine, one Red Rhino, and two fire bikes.

Upon arrival, the taxi's engine compartment was in flames, and the fire was extinguished within ten minutes.

The 30-year-old cab driver, who only wanted to be known as Mr Yusri, said that he had just dropped off a passenger at the JCube taxi stand, when other drivers started to honk at him. He pulled over beside a bus stop in front of Block 131, about 200 metres away from the JCube shopping mall.

"I only saw smoke but I didn't know there was a fire underneath," he said. He called the police at about 7.50pm after getting out of his vehicle and seeing the fire.

Mr Yusri has been a cab driver for only three and a half months. He had only started working for SMRT on Tuesday evening itself, for one and a half hours, when the incident occurred. "It's unexplainable," he said. "I was worried about the passers-by, that it might explode."

Madam Lucy Wang, 44, was working at a tuition centre on the third floor of Block 131 when the fire happened. She heard a "loud boom" and rushed out to see the taxi in flames. "The fire was very big. There was a lot of smoke," said the administrator. "I saw them close off the road and try to extinguish it."

No one was injured and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

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