On Thursday (24 Feb), the sight of a massive fireball in the sky caught many Singapore residents by surprise.
While the sight was no doubt spectacular, some were also fearful about the cause.
Authorities in Johor Bahru (JB) have since clarified that the crimson sphere was a result of a fire at one of its petrol plants.
Investigations into the explosion are currently ongoing.
After footage of the mushroom cloud surfaced, photos and videos from the blast quickly went viral online.
A 42-second video of the fireball posted on YouTube amassed almost 10,000 views at the time of writing. In the footage, a bright orange blast filled the sky before dissipating into a cloud of thick black smoke.
A Redditor also posted a similar video of the same explosion seen from Pasir Ris Park.
In the comments section, some said they mistakenly thought the video was from Ukraine before realising it was posted in the Singapore subreddit.
Thankfully, the OP later clarified that the fire was from a JB petrol plant.
Responding to Channel NewsAsia’s (CNA) queries, a spokesperson from Taman Pasir Putih police station said the explosion was caused by a fire at Lotte Synthetic Rubber plant at Tanjung Langsat.
As of 8.30pm, local authorities were still trying to extinguish the fire which started around 3 hours prior.
So far, reports state that only 2 workers suffered light injuries and investigations are still ongoing.
While many of us might have seen our fair share of explosions yesterday (24 Feb) from the Ukraine crisis, perhaps we ought to be more discerning when sharing information about the fireball in JB.
Especially given the circumstances we’re in, the spread of such misinformation may cause unnecessary panic.
We hope the 2 injured workers will have a speedy recovery and that nobody else sustained injuries.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Google Maps and YouTube.
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