It was absolute chaos throughout the whole of last night when the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spent six hours fighting a raging blaze that erupted at Pulau Busing, an island off the southwestern coast of Singapore that’s occupied by petroleum storage company Tankstore Ltd.
The SCDF was first alerted to the fire at about 5:50pm — the blaze involved an oil storage tank. Firefighting vehicles and personnel had to be deployed to Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal, where a craft transported the resources over to the island. The big guns were rolled out, too.
At 11pm, firefighting operations were still ongoing, with SCDF personnel working together with the in-house CERT (Company Emergency Response Team) members to cool down adjacent oil storage tanks so they wouldn’t catch fire.
“Radiant heat from the affected oil storage tank poses a major challenge to the firefighters as they move forward while maintaining a safe distance,” wrote SCDF. Despite the challenge, SCDF firefighters and members of the CERT are still pressing on.”
Five unmanned water monitors were used to cool down neighboring tanks, while two unmanned foam monitors were deployed to mitigate the oil storage tank fire itself.
The prolonged operation meant that firefighting personnel had to work in shifts on the island. Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam also dropped by to get a first-hand account of the ongoing situation.
Finally, around 1:41 am, SCDF updated on Facebook that the blaze was extinguished after “approximately six hours of intense firefighting operations”, with no casualties reported. All in all, it took the combined efforts of 128 SCDF personnel, CERT members, and 31 firefighting and support vehicles to put out the fire. The Police Coast Guard, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Republic of Singapore Navy, and National Environment Agency provided support in the operations.
“A complex operation. But SCDF planned and executed well,” wrote Minister Shanmugam. “An incredible job by SCDF.”
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