SINGAPORE — Amid exploding metal drums and intense heat, more than 100 firefighters stood their ground to battle a raging blaze the size of a football field on Wednesday (Dec 11) morning. 

This was at a waste management facility located at 48 Tuas Crescent. 

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that it was alerted to the fire at about 6am. 

When firefighters arrived at the scene, the blaze had already engulfed a premises dealing in industrial waste management, including recycled oil and solvents.

The affected area was about the size of a football field but flames were rapidly spreading along nearby drains, SCDF said in a Facebook post. Videos on social media showed huge billows of dark smoke emerging from a building.

Firefighters had to brave intense heat to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby storage tanks and premises.

SCDF said: “During the firefighting operations, there were multiple explosions from metal drums storing flammable industrial liquids. Despite the risks involved, firefighters donning breathing apparatus sets and face masks stood their ground and pushed back the blaze, and successfully contained it within the premises.”

At first, 32 emergency vehicles and about 80 firefighters were deployed to fight the blaze using eight water jets.

This later increased to 34 vehicles and about 130 firefighters.

In an update later, SCDF said that at the height of the operations, 10 water jets and three unmanned firefighting machines were used.

An unmanned aerial vehicle was also deployed to help firefighters pinpoint areas where the flames were most intense.

The fire was brought under control by around 10am and extinguished at around noon. There were no reported injuries, and its cause is under investigation.