An area the size of two football fields were aflame on Monday night (12 August) near East Coast Park. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) raised in a Facebook post that it responded to a vegetation fire near Marina East Drive about 8.50pm, deploying about 50 firefighters and 12 emergency vehicles to fight the blaze.
The SCDF surrounded the fire with seven water jets and managed to get it under control almost two hours later at 10.30pm. No injuries were reported, said SCDF.
At about 8.50pm, SCDF responded to a vegetation fire, approx the size of 2 football fields, near Marina East Drive. SCDF surrounded the fire with 7 water jets. 12 vehicles and about 50 firefighters have been deployed. Fire brought under control at 10.30pm. No reported injuries. pic.twitter.com/7e41f7Fa3H
— Singapore Civil Defence Force (@SCDF) August 12, 2019
The fire on Monday night follows at least two fires the day before. One was in the Tengah Area and covered the size of about 10 football fields, according to Stomp. The other, much small fire was along the Pan Sua Canal. Both incidents were dealt with.
@987fm Forest fire at Marina East Drive. Avoid at all cost. @987charmian @987Sonia @geraldkoh987 pic.twitter.com/cRDI1bXwIl
— Ngu Dow Lon, Chris (@chris3961) August 12, 2019
Earlier in March, more than 50 firefighters battled a vegetation fire near Lim Chi Kang Chinese Cemetery, taking 19-hours to put out the flames. The area, which was much small that the one last night, was slowburning and deep seated, according to the SCDF. The weather was windy was well, which helped fan the flames.
According to SCDF’s numbers, the force observed 588 vegetation fires last year which is a sharp 60% increase compared to the same period in 2017 which was only 368 fires.
The SCDF attributed this to the dry weather conditions in February 2018 which say 213 fires, significantly higher than the 17 fires during the same period in 2017.
Earlier this month, the National Environment Agency’s Meteorological Service Singapore announced a forecast of drier than usual weather conditions in Singapore and the surrounding regions until October, following a record dry season in July.
