SINGAPORE – A fire broke out at a hawker centre in Sembawang on Tuesday morning after a stall was left unmanned.
The fire at Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre, which opened in December 2022, involved a stove and the kitchen exhaust hood of a food stall on the first floor.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it was alerted to the incident at 9.05am and that members of the public had put out the fire with a fire extinguisher before it arrived. There were no reported injuries.
A worker at the affected stall – Long Xiang Ho Chiak Scissors Cut Curry Rice – told Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News that he was in the toilet when the fire happened.
The worker, who wanted to be known as Mr Wu, 63, said he does not know when the stall will be ready for business again.
When The Straits Times visited the stall at about 10am, it was water-logged with the lights switched off.
Madam Christine Lock, 47, who sells nasi lemak just two stalls away, said thick flames rose above the burning stall.
She added: “The smoke was everywhere, and I was anxious and afraid that an explosion might happen.”
With the only exit blocked by the smoke, she was forced to climb over the counter with a customer’s help to leave her stall.