20200918 Fire breaks out at Sembawang God of Wealth Temple on Friday night
Singapore Sep 18 2020 “Building” “Other bldg.”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire breaks out at Sembawang God of Wealth Temple on Friday night
Updated: 2020–09–18
A fire broke out at the Sembawang God of Wealth Temple on Sept 18, 2020.PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
SINGAPORE – A fire broke out on Friday (Sept 18) night at the Sembawang God of Wealth Temple.
The fire occurred at 28 Admiralty Street past 9pm on Friday evening, and the blaze appeared to engulf a large portion of the four-storey temple.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at about 9.15pm, upon which it dispatched a fire engine and other fire-fighting assets to the scene.
Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the temple as red flames flared in the compound behind the main temple signage in a Facebook livestream posted by Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao at 10.56pm.
The blaze drew around 40 spectators across the canal from the main entrance of the temple.
At about 11.28pm, the flames appeared to be extinguished after having raged for close to two hours. At least one SCDF personnel was later seen on the higher storeys of the temple, with torch in hand.
Onlookers cheered when the fire looked to be extinguished with some clapping and hollering. A blanket of grey-white smoke continued to billow around the large statue of the God of Wealth.
The SCDF said it used five water jets to penetrate and contain the fire. As a safety precaution, residents from a nearby elderly home were evacuated by the police. During the evacuation, an elderly man from the home experienced breathlessness and was assessed by an SCDF paramedic.
He was subsequently taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital by an SCDF ambulance.
SCDF later said in an update that a total of 19 emergency vehicles and 62 firefighters were deployed for the incident.
At the height of the operations, seven jets were used to bring the fire under control.
The fire, confined to the first and second floor of the four-storey temple, was extinguished close to midnight.
The cause of fire is under investigation.
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Facebook on Saturday (Sept 19) that no one was hurt in the fire and thanked the SCDF for its work.
Mr Ong, a Sembawang GRC MP, also spoke to the temple’s chairman on Saturday morning and learnt that the statues of the deities in the temple were not damaged.
The temple’s management will arrange a professional to assess the structural integrity of the building.
Web Source: The Straitstimes