The Singapore Civil Defence Force issued multiple statements earlier today about an “incident” that happened at No.2 Gambas Crescent, which has since been revealed to be a chlorine gas leak that saw 20 people evacuated.
SCDF’s first statement
[Incident @ No. 2 Gambas Crescent]
SCDF is currently mitigating an incident at the abovementioned location.
Members of the public are advised to avoid the area.
More details will be shared soon.
SCDF’s second statement
[Hazardous materials incident @ No. 2 Gambas Crescent]
At about 7.15am today (28 May), SCDF received a call for assistance at the abovementioned location.
Upon arrival, SCDF firefighters used chemical detectors and detected the presence of chlorine gas within a rubbish compactor room on the ground floor of the premises.
The firefighters immediately deployed a water jet to dilute the vapours surrounding the room. Two blower fans were also deployed to contain the vapours within the room.
The air concentration outside the affected room remained at a safe level. Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, SCDF evacuated about 20 people from the affected premises.
There were no reported injuries at the time of this post.
SCDF’s final statement
[Final update: Hazardous materials incident @ No. 2 Gambas Crescent]
To ensure that there was no more traces of chlorine, SCDF responders, with the assistance of a contractor, emptied the entire contents of the compactor room onto the floor. A water jet was then used to wet the contents and dilute the concentration of the gas in the room.
SCDF responders also used chemical detectors to ensure that there was no longer any presence of the chlorine gas.
Arrangements have been made to have the contents of the compactor room transported away from the premises.
There were no reported injuries in this incident.
At the start of SCDF’s operation, we had sent out an sms text message to members of the public within the vicinity to avoid the area. We would like to thank the public for their cooperation and support. Public safety is always our concern and by avoiding the area, this allowed our responders to carry out the mitigation operation safely and as quickly as possible.
