It’s always heartening to see the everyday heroes among us step forward to help whenever a crisis happens. Like the two men that leapt onto the scene when fire engulfed a Trans-Cab taxi in the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) tunnel on Tuesday evening (Aug 29).
The two experienced emergency responders, who happened to be driving through the tunnel around 6:50pm, saw smoke billowing from the cab as they drove nearer to the scene. Syed Abdillah Zain Alhabshee, who was with his friend Mohamad Fuad Abdul Aziz, told Channel NewsAsia that they had heard an “extremely loud” explosion on the expressway. Fuad works as a training manager for Medlink Services, while 37-year-old Syed Abdillah is the director of First Medic Training and Ambulance Services.
Safety was the first thing that came to mind, as 36-year-old Fuad explained to The Straits Times. “We saw a fire, so we rushed in to help. We didn’t think of the danger, only for the safety of our fellow motorists.”
It was as simple as that.
The quick-thinking duo turned on their vehicle’s hazard lights to close off the middle lane to traffic and walked towards the flames to assess how they could help. Fortunately, no one was in the burning taxi, so the men took the nearest hose they could find and sprayed the flames with water.
Together with the help of another motorist and a group of seven Gurkha soldiers, the men managed to extinguish the blaze in about 10 minutes. Even though they faced obstacles like a second explosion and wind in the tunnel, the group was able to put out the flames and continue on with damping down operations until officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived on the scene.
The pair eventually exited the tunnel around 7:30pm, about 45 minutes after the fire started.
“As we’re used to emergency situations, lending a helping hand was almost second nature to us,” Fuad explained to The Straits Times. “We’re just glad that there were no casualties.”
For the risk they took to offer help, both men received praises online for doing their part to save the day.
