Huge fire in the sky visible in S'pore from M'sia refinery flaring

A bright orange glow in the sky was seen flickering unabated for hours and visible from various parts of Singapore on Oct. 15 night and early Oct. 16 morning.

For those in the northern and northeastern parts of Singapore, they were greeted by this sight:

These were some of the images of the blazing inferno shared on social media, including the Facebook community group Cloudspotting & Skyspotting in Singapore.

Here are others:

Tampines North

Punggol

Yishun

Source of fire

For northeastern residents and others in the know, the orange flames originate from the flaring activities at refineries and petrochemical plants in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

Pasir Gudang is an industrial refinery town in Johor Bahru just across the straits from Punggol.

It is almost a quarter the size of Singapore.

Depending on the wind direction, black soot is occasionally blown over to Singapore and into people's homes.

Flaring is a common safety feature used during routine maintenance and in refineries.

It is done to prevent the buildup of process gases.

The gases will burn off into carbon dioxide and water vapour and should not have any health impacts.

Top image via CloudSpotting & SkySpotting Singapore.