A video circulating widely on social media showed that smoke was rising from an escalator at Ang Mo Kio MRT station on Monday afternoon in Singapore. According to the video, the affected escalator leads to an underground link to AMK Hub.
The clip also showed several fire engines from the Singapore Civil Defence Force parked outside the MRT station.
A spokesperson for SMRT told Channel NewsAsia that it was investigating the incident. However, he added that "train services are not affected" and there is "no danger to commuters". The publication reported that SMRT technicians are investigating on-site.
Fire incidents are becoming quite common in Singapore and thus in order to reduce such incidents Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), the main agency in charge of the provision of emergency services in the country has formed an advisory panel to review the regulatory authority on cladding, the covering on the surface to provide thermal insulation.
On Feb 1, SCDF announced that the Cladding Regulatory Regime Review Advisory Panel will provide feedbacks and required assistance in their implementation. The panel will have 13 members to be selected from different government agencies, certification bodies, the building industry and academia.
The panel will review the safety measures, regulations and certification processes, which is related to the use of Aluminum Composite Panels (ACPs) as cladding. After reviewing the situation, the panel will release its results by the end of 2018.
Last year in September, SCDF has identified few buildings which may have unsafe cladding. The reason for taking such action is the outbreak of a fire at 30 Toh Guan Road in May 2017. The fire in the industrial area killed a 54-year-old woman beside causing local damage.
In December 2017, SCDF has already said that there are 17 buildings which have completed the removal of cladding from their external walls. But there are other 17 buildings which are still under process.
