Recently, there’s been a spate of cars bursting into flames suddenly, and while the incidents appear unrelated they definitely attract lots of attention.
While previous cases have taken place in the neighbourhood or expressways, the most recent one happened in the middle of town on a Saturday night.
As you can imagine, that meant many people enjoying their weekend in town ended up kaypohing at the blaze
It erupted at a road junction at Beach Road, and involved the car’s engine compartment.
In a statement sent to MS News, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to a car on fire on Saturday (20 Mar) night at about 7.20pm.
It was at the junction of Beach Road and Jalan Sultan, outside Steamov hotpot restaurant.
Source
At 7.27pm, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said an “accident” had occurred.
Due to the location and timing of the fire, many were around to witness it, and soon videos of the blaze went viral over the Internet.
One netizen took a video probably from an apartment overlooking the area.
He was amazed at how much smoke it caused, enveloping the city area.
Other witnesses on the ground took videos of the blaze apparently getting larger and spreading even to the shophouses next to the car.
The plume of smoke from the fire was also revealed to be so high that it obscured the tall building behind.
Several loud bangs could also be heard, which presumably came from the car’s engine exploding.
When SCDF came on the scene, they extinguished the fire with a compressed air foam backpack and a water jet.
Several videos also captured our heroic SCDF officers handling the situation.
Police officers also helped to disperse the crowd who were getting too close for their own safety.
From the videos, we can see the crowd of onlookers was quite large indeed.
After all, it’s not everyday that you see a large blaze right in the middle of town.
However, the fact that Singaporeans felt safe enough to gather despite the huge fire shows that they’re confident our SCDF would put it out safely.
As for those wondering about the cause of the fire, the SCDF only said that it involved the car’s engine compartment.
The precise cause is under investigation.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported from the fire, SCDF added.
The car, however, was burnt to a crisp.
As we can see from the photo, even the wall of the shophouse next to it was damaged.
Kudos to SCDF for their timely action of rushing to the scene and putting out the fire.
Strangely, besides this incident, other cars have also caught fire in recent months, in places like a Tampines junction, a Punggol carpark and at Geylang Serai market.
We won’t speculate on the reasons as they may vary, but these incidents show that car maintenance is important and should be done so regularly.
And if you see a similar incident happening next time, there’s nothing wrong with being curious but please do so at a safe distance.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at hello@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
Footage showed that the car had been parked on the right-most lane.
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