SINGAPORE – A large fire broke out near East Coast Park on Monday night (Aug 12), affecting an area the size of two football fields.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it responded to a vegetation fire near Marina East Drive that was “approximately the size of two football fields” at about 8.50pm.

About 50 firefighters and 12 emergency vehicles were deployed, SCDF said in a Facebook post. It surrounded the fire with seven water jets and brought it under control at 10.30pm.

There are no reported injuries, said SCDF.

Monday night’s fire followed at least two vegetation fires the day before.

One, in the Tengah area, was about the size of 10 football fields, according to citizen journalism site Stomp. Another along Pang Sua Canal was about the size of one football field.

Both blazes were extinguished using two water jets.

Back in March, more than 50 firefighters eventually won a 19-hour battle against a vegetation fire near Lim Chu Kang Chinese Cemetery for 19 hours. Although the area was not as large as the fire last night, the SCDF had said at the time that the fire was slowburning and deep seated and weather conditions were windy.

That blaze had involved piles of timber wastecand was about the size of one football field.

Annual statistics released by the SCDF in February noted a sharp jump in vegetation fires last year.

There were 588 such fires last year (2018), an increase of nearly 60 per cent compared with 368 in 2017.

This was largely due to the dry weather in February 2018, which saw 213 vegetation fires alone. There were only 17 during the same period in 2017, said the SCDF.

The National Environment Agency’s Meteorological Service Singapore said earlier this month (August) that it forecasts drier-than-normal weather conditions here and in the surrounding region in the coming weeks, following a record dry July.

Drier weather can be expected from August to October this year.

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