A fire broke out yesterday morning (11 May) at hawker stall in Marsiling Lane Food Centre, Marsiling Teochew Fish Soup, that saw 1 person being sent to hospital for burn injuries.
A video emerged online showing a man trying to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher, and it was revealed that the man was the chairman of the Marsiling Merchants and Hawkers’ Association.
The fire was so bad that the whole hawker centre was seen covered in black smoke, with worried passers-by crowding outside the hawker centre and discussing among themselves what was happening.
According to Shin MIn Daily News, about 20 stalls were forced to halt their business operations for a while because they all shared the same exhaust duct as the affected fish soup stall, which was severely damaged by the raging fire.
The owner of the fish soup stall said that their 60-year-old stall assistant was frying eggs at the time when the stove suddenly caught on fire.
The staff then noticed that the exhaust was on fire before turning off the gas and evacuating from the stall, but still suffered burn injuries and was sent to the hospital.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said that they were alerted to a fire that broke out at Block 20 Marsiling Lane on Thursday at about 8.20am, involving a kitchen exhaust duct at the hawker centre.
Firefighters managed to put out the fire using a water jet, and before their arrival, about 40 people at the hawker centre had already evacuated themselves.
Marsiling-Yew Tee MP responds
FIRE INCIDENT AT MARSILING HAWKER CENTRE
We were alerted to a fire that broke out at Marsiling Hawker Centre this morning. We were fortunate that no merchant or resident was seriously hurt. A big thank you goes to the Singapore Civil Defence Force team for putting out the fire and providing on-ground medical assistance. A special shoutout also goes to Ricky, Chairman of the merchants’ association, as the first responder with a fire extinguisher to help slow the spread of the fire before SCDF arrived (Pic 2).
A row of stalls were affected by the fire and were unable to operate today. The Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council team is working hard to assist with the replacement of trunking cables, exhaust duct and cleaning up the affected area. We hope that these can be restored soon so that most of the stalls can resume business soon.
However, there may be up to 4 stalls that will be most affected as the repairs needed for them to operate may take a couple of weeks to replace the damaged parts and complete the repairs.
I met some of the affected stallholders earlier and assured them that we will do our best to assist them with their various needs as well as seeking relief and assistance from relevant agencies.
We also heard some good news that the stall assistant who suffered mild injuries is fine and is resting at home now.