Car fire on TPE prompts SCDF response; cause under investigation

SINGAPORE: A car caught fire along the Tampines Expressway (TPE) towards the Seletar Expressway (SLE) at about 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug 4), but the driver escaped unharmed.

On Facebook, photos of the incident showed that a white car was on fire on the highway, with flames engulfing the entire vehicle. Fortunately, the car was parked on the side of the expressway, preventing other vehicles from being affected by the accident. 

The Singapore Civil Defence Force reported that authorities arrived at the scene after being notified and extinguished the fire using a water cannon and a compressed air foam trolley. No one was injured in the incident, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation. 

Netizens share their thoughts and opinions on what happened in the comments section of the post. One suspected that it was an electric vehicle (EV), and claimed: “Another dangerous evil murderous explody EV! Burning all the time, each day at least 5 EVs burst into flames just not widely reported.” 

“Why are so many cars catching fire nowadays? Is the LTA going to check further?”, a netizen asked. 

In similar news, there was a report where a Mercedes electric vehicle worth more than S$230,000 caught fire shortly after leaving a car park, forcing its driver to flee the vehicle. 

The driver said she bought the electric car less than three years ago, and she had never had any problems driving it before. She shared that she noticed the smell of smoke moments after driving out of the car park and quickly got out to investigate.

“Fortunately, the fire started here (near the parking lot). If it had been on the expressway, I definitely wouldn’t have dared to stop,” the driver admitted. 

Read more about the news story here.