200 SCDF personnel battle huge Tuas plant blaze

SINGAPORE — Riding her motorcycle to work early yesterday, human resource executive Shanu Singgaram was several kilometres away from her Tuas View Circuit office when she caught sight of thick plumes of smoke rising in the distance.

This made her worry that her firm LBE Engineering was on fire. But as she drew closer, she realised the flames had engulfed the Eco Special Waste Management (SWM) plant across the road.

“I was quite shocked,” said Ms Singgaram, 38, adding that she could still hear the sound of explosions when she arrived at her workplace.

The fire, which started at about 6.15am and took four hours to put out, had engulfed the premises — measuring about 200m by 200m — when the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel arrived.

At any given time, at least 20 to 30 workers are in the facility, which is always operational, Eco SWM’s chief executive Rick Reidinger told TODAY.

No one was hurt in the blaze, save for an SCDF firefighter who was taken to hospital for heat exhaustion.

In response to TODAY’s queries, a Building and Construction Authority (BCA) spokesperson said that the fire had affected most of the buildings in the premises, and it had directed the owners to shut the entire premises.

When TODAY arrived near the scene at about 10.30am, there was a sharp smell of chemicals in the air as the fire burned. At least 20 employees, who could not enter the premises, were seen waiting at the nearby Tuas South Avenue 9.

To douse the fire, the SCDF deployed about 200 responders and 38 emergency vehicles, which included nine fire engines and 15 support vehicles. It had started battling the blaze with three water monitors and two unmanned firefighting machines. As the fire continued to rage, the SCDF deployed more equipment.

The fire — which led to road closures in the vicinity, including Tuas South Avenue 3 — involved chemical waste and flammable materials.

The drains in the plant’s immediate vicinity also caught fire, which the SCDF suppressed with foam.

Periodic explosions were also heard by people in the vicinity, where a range of firms are located.

Last August, a blaze of similar scale hit the CK Building in Tampines, which saw 110 SCDF officers and 27 emergency vehicles being deployed.

In a Facebook update at about 11.50am, the SCDF said that the fire had been extinguished after four hours of “intensive firefighting”.

Damping-down operations — applying water to wet burnt surfaces after a fire is put out to prevent a potential rekindling — were also under way. More than four hours later, Ms Singgaram said the intense smell of chemicals persisted, affecting mainly those who work in the open.

She said some of her colleagues had to make detours to get to work after the road closures kicked in.

Speaking to TODAY, Mr Reidinger said the firm’s on-site emergency response team had attempted to contain the fire, and notified the SCDF once it became clear that “the fire was more than they could handle”.

“At that point, (the employees) were evacuated,” he said.

This was not the first time there was a fire at the facility. In 2012, it was hit by a smaller fire.

Yesterday’s blaze occurred despite a major investment in fire safety. Mr Reidinger said the firm was investigating its “exact source”.

In the last five years, it spent between S$60 million and S$70 million to upgrade the site’s recovery systems, as well as fire protection and safe storage systems. The facility was built in 1998, but after decommissioning older equipment, most of its equipment is 10 years old or less.

Noting that parts of the facility were not as badly damaged as previously thought, Mr Reidinger expects the plant to regain 30 per cent of its capacity in a week, rising to 50 per cent in a month.

The BCA spokesperson said it will conduct an inspection of the premises once access to the affected area has been granted.

As a precautionary measure, the BCA has also directed the owners of Eco SWM “to close the entire premises and to appoint a professional engineer to assess the structural condition of the buildings, and submit a report which will include the recommended permanent rectification works”.