At least 2 men were injured after a fire broke out at a coffee shop in Bishan on Monday night in Singapore. Reports said that the two wounded men were taken to Singapore General Hospital for medical treatment.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that it was informed about the fire at Block 514A Bishan Street 13 at about 11.06 pm. It added that immediately resources were dispatched to the location.
According to SCDF, the fire, which involved contents at the coffee shop, was extinguished using two water jets.
A video footage of the incident showed bright orange flames and plumes of thick smoke rising from the building.
Melvin Huang, a 30-year-old aircraft engineer told Channel NewsAsia that he was waiting for a bus at the Bishan Bus Interchange when he suddenly saw the blaze at around 11 pm. "The police and SCDF (had) already arrived and blocked off the whole area," he told the publication.
"I didn't smell any smoke from the interchange," Huang said. He added that the fire "looked like it burnt half of the coffee shop".
Huang said that the members of the public were not allowed to go near the area. However, he added that the nearby shops were not affected due to the blaze.
Fire accidents have become quite common in the nation. On Feb 9, a van caught fire just before the Outram exit on the Central Expressway. Last month, a car suddenly caught fire on January 22, on Jurong Canal Drive closing the Jurong East Avenue 1 entrance to the Pan Island Expressway (PIE).
In an initiative to reduce fire 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.
