The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) responded to four fires which broke out in separate incidents on Mar. 23.

Three out of four fires involved vehicles, and two involved recycling trucks.

The last incident saw a patch of grass ignite outside Marina Bay Cruise Center.

First incident

A recycling truck caught fire around 10:30am at Block 114A Bukit Batok West Avenue 6.

An eyewitness, Wang Yacai (transliteration from Chinese), 69, told Lianhe Zaobao that he was driving home when he noticed a recycling truck on fire, with thick smoke billowing out from its rear.

SCDF said that the fire involved contents in the rear compartment of a truck and extinguished the fire with two water jets.

Wang said that he saw smoke emitting from the recyclables which were dumped out of the truck.

The truck left at around 11 am, and another truck came to collect the recyclables strewn on the floor.

A cleaner who wished to be anonymous told the Chinese newspaper that they suspected there were discarded batteries in the pile.

In a response to Lianhe Zaobao's queries, ALBA Group, the company which owns the recycling trucks, said that although the company did not rule out the possibility of batteries causing the fire, the incident still required further investigation for a conclusive answer.

Second incident

In a video posted on the Facebook page ROADS.sg, thick smoke and flames can be seen bellowing out from a red car.

SCDF said they received a call for assistance at around 3:40pm on the Pan-Island Expressway towards Changi, just after the Paya Lebar exit.

The fire involved the engine of the vehicle, and two water cannons were used to extinguish the fire.

Third incident

In a separate video posted on ROADS.sg, a recycling truck can be seen engulfed in orange flames.

The SCDF said it was alerted to a fire along the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) before the Kranji Expressway exit at about 4:50pm.

An eyewitness told Shin Min Daily News that she was taking a bus from Marsiling to Bandar when she saw the fire.

She said that the journey, which would normally take eight minutes, took more than 30 minutes.

The fire had resulted in two lanes being blocked off, causing a traffic jam.

The fire involved the engine compartment and the contents in the truck’s rear compartment and was extinguished using a water jet and a compressed air foam jet.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Fourth incident

The fourth fire broke out at 8:55pm at a grass patch in front of Marina Bay Cruise Center.

The fire involved vegetation measuring approximately three meters wide and one meter long.

Members of the public extinguished the fire using buckets of water prior to SCDF’s arrival.

No injuries reported

No injuries were reported for any of the fires.

Top photo via ROADS.sg