Three employees manning the Ready-to-Eat counter at the NTUC FairPrice Xtra store in Jem shopping centre suffered minor burns when a deep fryer caught fire on Wednesday morning.

A FairPrice spokesman said the fire started at 10.30am and triggered the alarm, activating the fire sprinkler in that area of the store. Customers and staff were evacuated.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and emergency vehicles arrived in eight minutes. By then, fire had already been extinguished by the sprinkler system.

A man and a woman who are employees of the Ready-to-Eat vendor were taken to Singapore General Hospital with burns on their forearms. A third employee was taken to a nearby clinic for treatment. FairPrice later said that two of the employees were given outpatient treatment while the third will remain in hospital for observation.