130 firefighters and over 4 hours to douse fire at Tuas industrial waste management site

More than 130 firefighters were called in to put out a massive blaze that that broke out at an industrial waste management site in Tuas on Wednesday morning (Dec 11).

The warehouse was the size of a football field and the fire took more than four hours to put out.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at 48 Tuas Crescent at around 6am.

“A total of 34 emergency vehicles and about 130 firefighters were deployed. At the height of the operations, ten jets and three Unmanned Firefighting Machines were used to mitigate the fire. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was utilised to assist the firefighters in identifying areas where the fire was most intense. The fire was brought under control by approximately 10am”, they said.

48 Tuas Crescent, where the blaze occurred, houses Unifine Star Petrochemical. Unifine Star deals with toxic industrial waste, such as oil and chemicals, collecting, disposing and recycling them for other use.
Firefighters faced intense heat while preventing the fire from spreading to the other nearby storage tanks and premises. Foam was also used to cover the surfaces of flammable liquids, a more effective firefighting strategy for fire involving such liquids.

During the firefighting operations, there were multiple explosions from metal drums storing flammable industrial liquids, a Facebook statement from SCDF said.

The fire has been confined to the premises and no injuries have been reported, it said.

“In view of the ongoing fire mitigation operations, members of the public are advised to stay away from the area,” it added.

The SCDF also added that investigations are still ongoing. /TISG