SCDF ambulance exploded at Geylang East Central carpark

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SINGAPORE: An ambulance attending to a call for medical help caught fire and caused seven other vehicles in the same carpark to go up in flames.

The incident happened at about 3pm on Saturday at the carpark of Block 120 in Geylang East Central.

Eyewitness, Ng Yiwei, told Channel NewsAsia that she was at home with her sister when she heard the sounds of explosion and saw smoke from the window outside her flat on the sixth floor.

The 22-year-old National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate said: "Initially the fire was very scary. The smoke was so thick you can't tell that it came from the ambulance." It engulfed the ambulance and the fire then spread to a nearby lorry, causing the front of the vehicle to explode. The fire then moved on to two more cars and another lorry. There was an explosion at each vehicle.'

Her sister, Ng Yisi, who is also a NUS undergraduate, said: "The smoke was very thick and very scary. Initially we thought it was the haze from Indonesia, but when we looked down the window it was actually from the ambulance."

Police said no one was injured.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said the ambulance was attending to a case at Block 120.

It said the ambulance was stationary at the carpark, with its beacon lights on.

No one in the ambulance.

The ambulance crew was with the patient, an elderly Chinese woman, at the void deck, which was about 20 metres away.

Another ambulance sent the patient to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

The fire was put out within five minutes.

The cause of fire is under investigation.

- CNA/fa