A woman who had just bought a set of mini pot noodles at a Bukit Batok hawker stall realised the fire in the mini pot was burning out and decided to ask a stall assistant to add more fuel.

When the 60-year-old female stall assistant poured some gel fuel into the burner to revive the flame, the resulting explosion charred the customer's belongings and nearly burnt her hair.

Staff poured gel fuel directly to revive flame

This incident took place at a hawker stall located at 155 Bukit Batok Street 11 at around 11am, according to Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min).

The customer, Wei Yuqin (transliteration from Chinese), told Shin Min she ordered a fishball noodles dish from the stall, which came in a mini pot.

However, not long after it was served, the fire in the burner was almost extinguished, so Wei asked for a combustion aid to make the flame stronger.

In response, a female stall assistant came over and lifted up the pot to pour gel fuel directly into the burner.

Wei claimed she had warned the stall assistant not to do it as it felt dangerous, but the stall assistant told her it was no problem.

Fuel landed on hair from explosion

Right as the stall assistant was pouring in the gel fuel, Wei heard a loud bang as flames exploded from the mini-pot burner.

Flames landed on Wei's handphone and two plastic bags containing her belongings.

Wei claimed some of the fuel landed on her hair, so she fled from the table and managed to avoid getting burned.

A few customers nearby acted quickly to help put out the fire.

Wei's two bags appeared to have been charred from the incident.

Wei said that this was not her first time patronising that particular stall.

She pointed out that on previous occasions, she had seen stall assistants pouring in the gel fuel slowly from the side of the burner instead of "vertically" onto the fire.

Stall assistant said it was an accident & her first time

The 60-year-old stall assistant told Shin Min that it was her first time adding gel fuel to a burner for a customer.

She said that it was an accident and that she didn't know that the fuel shouldn't be poured directly onto an open fire.

"It gave me a shock, and I felt guilty for causing it. Thankfully, the customer was unhurt," she shared.

Customer refunded by stall

The noodle stall manager, surnamed Huang, told Shin Min that the stall has since apologised to Wei and given her a refund.

Huang said that the stall takes this matter seriously and will be more careful when handling fuel in the future.

Top image from Shin Min Daily News