Oil tank blaze at Jurong Island

SINGAPORE — A massive blaze and plumes of black smoke could be seen at Jurong Island on Wednesday (April 20) afternoon after an oil tank caught fire .

Noting that "the intensity of the fire caused the affected tank to fold and buckle", the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said at about 6.40pm  — more than three hours after they were notified of the fire  — that the firefighting operation was still ongoing and it "is expected to be a prolonged operation".

The oil tank belonged to Jurong Aromatics Corp, located at 23 Tembusu Road, and contained light crude oil. It measured about 40m in diameter and 20m in height. "Upon SCDF’s arrival, the fire was raging and the in-house company emergency response team (CERT) was already fighting the fire with ground water monitors," said the SCDF on Facebook. 

A large 6000 gallons per minute foam monitor has been deployed to mitigate the fire. Several ground water monitors and fixed drencher systems were also used to cool down two oil tanks that were near by. 

Videos of the blaze taken by workers and residents in the area were posted online. 

Mr Mohammad Saiful told Channel NewsAsia that he could feel the heat from the flames some 4km away.

A Shell spokesman said in response to queries from TODAY that the ongoing fire on Jurong Island "is not related to Shell".  An ExxonMobil spokesman also told TODAY that the oil tank that caught fire on Wednesday did not belong to them.

Jurong Island is a major energy and chemical hub housing refineries and specialty plants by global giants like BASF, ExxonMobil, Mitsui Chemicals, Shell and Sumitomo Chemicals. 

The last major blaze on Jurong Island took place in May 3 2007 when an ExxonMobil oil refinery caught fire. The fire in 2007 killed three workers and injured one, while a fifth managed to escape unscathed.