‘Consequences could have been unimaginable’: Cigarette butt suspected in industrial fire

SINGAPORE: Another life-threatening fire accident occurred outside an industrial building on Geylang East Avenue 3. It was suspected that the fire was caused by a cigarette butt that was carelessly thrown away and eventually set fire to a discarded cardboard. As a result, five garbage bins and a truck parked nearby were damaged by the incident.

A 68-year-old reported to Shin Min Daily News that when he passed the area, he noticed a pile of cardboard placed in a garbage can, and these were the ones that caught the fire. Moreover, there was a truck parked next to the pile of cardboard, which was just blackened by the smoke. 

“Fortunately, the fire was not large, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable,” the witness claimed.

Thankfully, no one was injured in the accident. When reporters then visited the site, workers were cleaning up the ashes from the fire. 

A 25-year-old cleaner admitted to often noticing people smoking near the garbage bins and throwing the still-burning cigarette butts into the trash can. The cleaner shared, “I go over and warn them every time, but it’s hard to completely prevent it. This time, it’s probably because of something similar that the cardboard caught fire and caused the fire.”

The Singapore Civil Defence Force confirmed that they received the report. The Civil Defence personnel used water cannons to extinguish the fire, and the real cause of the fire is still under investigation. 

Other related news 

In similar news related to fire incidents, there was a recent report where a fire broke out in a Woodlands HDB flat, allegedly due to a double mattress that was left in the elevator lobby. 

According to residents, the wall and ceiling in the elevator lobby were blackened, and an electrical box was also burned to the point of melting. 

Read more about the news story here.