PUBLISHED ONDecember 04, 2025 2:50 AMBYChing Shi JieSean Ler
About 100 residents living in a Boon Keng HDB block were evacuated after a fire broke out at a coffee shop slightly after midnight on Thursday (Dec 4).
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that it was alerted to the fire at Block 11 Upper Boon Keng Road at 12.30am.
When firefighters arrived, the kitchen exhaust duct of the coffee shop was on fire. Several stalls had heat and smoke damage.
SCDF then extinguished the blaze with two water jets. One person was assessed for smoke inhalation and taken to Singapore General Hospital, SCDF said.
One stall holder said he had been asleep when the fire broke out just below his flat.
The stall holder, who wished to be known as Chew, 40, added that firefighters had woken him up. By then, the four other coffee shop employees who lived with him had already evacuated.
He also scalded his hands while retrieving items from his stall, he said.
SCDF said that the cause of the fire is under investigation.
According to SCDF’s annual statistics report released on Feb 13, the number of fires had increased in the past year — from 1,954 in 2023 to 1,990 in 2024.
SCDF attributed the rise to more fires at commercial, social and communal premises.
The number of deaths from fires also increased from three in 2023 to five in 2024.
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