Early morning fire at Changi Village hits popular nasi lemak stall
SINGAPORE – A popular nasi lemak stall at Changi Village saw its business disrupted by a fire on Monday morning (Aug 7), and hoped they can reopen for business as soon as Wednesday.
SINGAPORE – A popular nasi lemak stall at Changi Village saw its business disrupted by a fire on Monday morning (Aug 7), and hoped they can reopen for business as soon as Wednesday.
The incident, which happened at the Mizzy Corner Nasi Lemak stall, broke out from a small fire from a kitchen stove, said Ms Mizrea Abu Nazir, whose family has been running the stall since 1997.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they were alerted to the fire at 5.36am.
Ms Mizrea, 45, said she was not at the stall at the time, but an employee had been cooking chili sauce at about 5am. “It ignited and the fire spread very fast,” she said.
Thankfully, seven staff members from the nearby Dil'B Restaurant acted quickly to put the fire out with a dry powder extinguisher even before the SCDF arrived at the scene.
According to the SCDF, the fire involved the contents of a kitchen stove and the exhaust ducting.
One of the staff members, Madhan Kumar, 37, recalled: “Someone was shouting 'fire', so seven of us rushed over to help with a fire extinguisher (to put out the flames).”
The fire damaged the stove and some cookware. There was no reported injuries.
The SCDF said it is investigating the cause of the fire.
Ms Mizrea said while the damages will cost her between S$20,000 and S$30,000, she is “relieved” that the fire did not spread to other stalls and that nobody is injured.
The stove will be replaced and the stall will be temporarily closed pending approval from authorities to resume business.
“From now on, we have to be very careful ... You never know when a fire can break out, and you can never imagine how big it can be and how much damage it can cause,” added Ms Mizrea.
Long-time customer Abdul Rahman, 35, who makes a weekly trip to Changi Village from his home in Paya Lebar just to enjoy Mizzy Corner’s nasi lemak, lamented that he will miss his favourite dish for a while.
“I come here for the quality of food,” he said. “The chili is good, and we all know the family (who runs the stall) ... It’s sad that this happened.”