Fire at SIM campus prompts evacuations, disrupts classes and tests
A video obtained by TODAY from Shanna Goh, a Business Administration student at the Singapore Institute of Management showed the corridor to the building's lift lobby filled with smoke.
SINGAPORE — A fire caused by a portable air-cooler at the campus of the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) on Thursday (Aug 10) prompted the evacuation of students and faculty staff members from two buildings, disrupting classes and a class test.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that it was alerted to the fire at 461 Clementi Road, SIM's address, at about 9.10am.
It also said that the fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system before firefighters arrived at the scene.
No injuries were reported in the incident and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Mr Gerald Lum, SIM's director of brand, marketing and communications, said in response to media queries later in the day that the fire occurred in a control room at the Block B building on campus just before 9am.
"Investigations showed that it was due to a short-circuited portable air-cooler," he said, adding that campus operations resumed just before 10am.
Earlier, students were seen sitting at the building’s lobby when TODAY reached Block A of the campus at about 11am.
Several people there said that they were allowed back into the building 15 minutes after the evacuation announcement, adding that their classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.
Shanna Goh, 23, a Business Administration student at the university, said that she was in the middle of her psychology module examination at the Block B building when the fire alarm went off.
“Around 9.20am to 9.30am, there was a fire alarm but we didn’t think much about it since we were all focused on the exam and nobody was panicking," she said.
"About five minutes after the alarm, there was an announcement that there would be an investigation. (It told us not to) panic, but that it was also not a drill."
A second announcement followed, with faculty staff members and students eventually evacuating to the atrium near the entrance of the school, she added.
When TODAY tried to enter the basement of the building, the stairs that led to the car park were cordoned off and there was a pungent smell of smoke lingering in the air.
Mr Lum said in the media statement that there was a class test on Introductory Psychology that ended around the same time that the evacuation occurred, and the school has made arrangements for students to re-sit the test if they wish to do so.
CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated with information provided by the Singapore Institute of Management, including confirmation of the location of the fire and clarification that students were not sitting an examination.
