Worker Injured from Hot Oil After Fire Broke Out in Marsiling Hawker Centre

At about 8:20 am on Thursday, 11 May, a fire broke out in a stall at Marsiling Hawker Centre at Blk 20, Marsiling Lane.

The owner of the Teochew fish soup stall told Zaobao that while one of the workers at the stall was frying eggs, she heard an explosion and saw that the stove was on fire.

A male worker at the stall was splashed with hot oil and was sent to hospital with burn injuries.

Approximately 40 people, including stall vendors and customers, had self-evacuated before the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived.

Mr Lim Kwee Lim, 57, who runs a provisional shop near the hawker centre, told The Straits Times that another stall vendor had run to him to ask him for help.

He grabbed the fire extinguisher from his store and tried to put out the flames, but the fire was so big that it required the other nearby shop owners to help him by providing more fire extinguishers.

About ten extinguishers were used, and the fire was put out altogether ten minutes before the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived.

There was still a burning smell at the site, and there were puddles of water on the ground.

You can watch the video of the blaze here:

According to a Facebook post made by Zaqy Bin Mohamad, Member of Parliament for the Marsiling division of the Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC, the stall worker fortunately only suffered minor injuries.

However, Mr Mohamad mentioned that there were about four stalls that were affected by the fire, and that caused them to be temporarily non-operational. They may be closed for up to two weeks.

Mr Mohamad said that the Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council is working to assist the affected stalls with cleaning up the debris and making repairs so they can return to their regular business operations as soon as possible.

“I met some of the affected stallholders earlier and assured them that we will do our best to assist them with their various needs as well as seeking relief and assistance from relevant agencies.”

Many Many Fires

Is it just me, or have there been many, many fires recently?

The news of the Marsiling Hawker Centre fire comes in the wake of other fires that have happened this month alone.

Also in the north, at 2.50 pm on 8 May, a fire occurred in an HDB flat at Block 303 at Woodlands Street 31.

A fourth-floor apartment bedroom was involved in the fire, which firefighters from Woodlands Fire Station extinguished. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

30 residents of the block and a cat had to be evacuated from the scene. According to an SCDF paramedic, one person had to be sent to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital due to breathlessness.

Earlier that same day, at 8.10 am, 60 residents had to be evacuated from a Tampines HDB block after one unit caught fire. One resident from the block was sent to the Singapore General Hospital after inhaling the smoke from the fire.