Fire breaks out at Singapore's Golden Mile Tower; initial findings show blaze did not involve EVs

SINGAPORE: A fire, which broke out in Golden Mile Tower - an office and shopping complex along Beach Road, on Saturday (Aug 31) - has been put out.

In a Facebook post at 2.30pm, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) described the incident as a "multi-vehicle fire". It was alerted to the fire at around 12.50pm.

"The fire, which involved multiple cars at the car park, was extinguished by SCDF using two water jets," said SCDF, adding that about 45 people were evacuated by the police and SCDF.

Three people suffered from smoke inhalation, but they declined to be sent to the hospital, said SCDF.

Preliminary findings indicate that the cars involved in the fire were not electric vehicles, according to SCDF, which is investigating the cause of the fire.
 

Fire investigators were still at the car park on level 6 at around 4pm, with police telling CNA that the level was "not cleared yet". The area was still closed as of 5.10pm.

CNA also observed that tenants from levels one to five were allowed back into the building at around 3.45pm and that there was some flooding in the basement and water dripping from the ceiling at level two.

Earlier at 2.30pm, CNA spotted at least nine SCDF vehicles parked outside Golden Mile Tower. A few firefighters were seen walking out of the building.

Mr Jimmy Myo, a kitchen helper at Golden Mile Thien Kee steamboat restaurant in the basement of the building, said that the fire alarm rang at about 1.30pm. He was told by his boss to evacuate and roughly 11 employees then made their way to the entrance of the building.

Mr Myo, 36, said he heard that there had been a fire at the sixth-floor car park with around six cars burning. The staff waited for around 20 minutes before returning to their restaurant but were asked to evacuate again.

Madam Aiyn, who runs a convenience store at the entrance of Golden Mile Tower said she rushed down from her home nearby upon hearing of the fire from her sister-in-law.

"She told me huge smoke and fire. I told her, 'No, no, they will be burning the paper," Madam Ayin said.

"Then she showed me the photo. I just got panicked and came running."

She said her husband, who was already at the store, was not aware of the fire but smelled smoke later on.

She arrived at about 1pm but was asked to evacuate the premises and closed shop close to 3pm.

A manager of a nightclub at the basement of Golden Mile Tower said he arrived at between 1pm and 2pm, only for security personnel to ask him to evacuate the premises.

The manager, who only wanted to be known as Mr Jacky, was seen waiting outside the building at about 3pm. He told CNA that he was worried the nightclub might be flooded.

"After I came here, I heard people say there was an explosion," Mr Jacky said in Mandarin.

"If there is a flood then it's hard to do business. The customers cannot come in."His club was supposed to open at 3.30pm but was delayed due to the fire.

When tenants were allowed into the building at about 3.45pm, cleaners were seen mopping up puddles of water in the basement.

Mr Jacky was seen taking photos of the water puddling outside his premises at 4.50pm.

His nightclub was one of the handful of units at the basement of Golden Mile Tower - including a fashion retailer and a massage parlour - affected the most by the water resulting from fire-fighting operations.

Workers were seen vacuuming and scooping water collected at a basement corridor and within units.

Mr Jacky said he would be consulting the building management on the damage to his premises

Mr Lim Kheng Hock, who owns Hock Cafe on the basement of Golden Mile Tower, was seen mopping up puddles outside his stall when CNA spoke to him.

"I came at 3.36pm and they told me that the sixth floor car park had a fire.

"They sprayed the water and it flowed down," said the 70-year-old, who has been selling Nasi Lemak at the tower for 15 years.

His business was supposed to open to customers at 4pm but Mr Lim could not put out his tables and chairs due to the water.

"This is the first time this has happened in 15 years," he said.

The Projector, a movie theatre located just a floor below the fire at Golden Mile Towers, told CNA it had to cancel movie screenings for the whole day.

The movie theatre's venue-hire executive Jacob Chio said his friend alerted him to smoke within the vicinity and the sound of explosions at about 1pm.

Initially, Mr Chio thought that smoke came from the adjacent Hotel Traveltine. Upon a second check, however,  he realised that the smoke came from the carpark above his premises.

That was also when police officers asked staff to evacuate. The company's eight staff, and five to six patrons evacuated within minutes.

But with six screenings cancelled, around 200 tickets issued to customers had to be refunded. Each is priced at S$16.

"It's pretty sad for us because it's a Saturday, which is quite a big day, a popular day for people to go to see the cinemas, and we had to cancel a whole day of screenings because we weren't sure of how the situation would develop. And we weren't sure how our equipment and venue will be affected by this fire," said Mr Chio.

He added that the cinema was supposed to have its opening weekend for an exclusive film, with a lot of tickets sold. "Unfortunately we had to refund everyone.

"Fortunately, The Projector did not sustain any damage from the fire and will resume screenings from Sunday.

The Projector had earlier posted on Instagram about the fire and said all afternoon shows were cancelled and would be fully refunded.

Moments later, it added that evening shows were also cancelled.

Photos and videos of the fire, which began to emerge online at around 1pm, showed thick, black smoke billowing from the upper floors of the side of the building facing Golden Mile Complex.

In one photo, more than a dozen vehicles, which look to be of the same make, are engulfed in flames. The vehicles appear to be in a car park on an upper floor of the building.

Social media posts from over a year ago showed similar vehicles parked in the same location. The posts state that the vehicle is the Honda N-Van. The model is not available from Singapore's only official Honda dealer, Kah Motors.

Golden Mile Tower was built in the 1970s and currently houses a mix of restaurants, offices and the indie cinema The Projector. The building is also a terminal for buses travelling to and from Malaysia and Thailand. 

Adjacent to Golden Mile Tower is the 300-room Hotel Traveltine and next to that is Golden Mile Complex, which is currently undergoing construction and restoration work.