SINGAPORE — Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel described last week’s Jalan Buroh fire as a “towering inferno” with “cylinders flying across” the scene, accompanied by the sounds of “constant explosions” — unlike any fire they had seen before.

But amid the intense heat, Major Navin Balakrishnan, 37, who is the commander of Bukit Batok Fire Station, walked right towards two “bullet” tanks, containing 120 tonnes of flammable liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

He told TODAY at Jurong Fire Station on Tuesday (June 25) that he wanted to assess the risk involved before deciding on the next move. “Safety was the first consideration. Safety for the guys. Safety for those who are around me,” he said.

The fire raged through the bottling and storage facility of Summit Gas Systems, containing hundreds of highly flammable LPG bottles, at Jalan Buroh in the Jurong industrial area on Friday (June 21). One Chinese national died in the fire, while two more Chinese nationals were taken to hospital with burn injuries.

As Major Balakrishnan appraised the situation, his mind turned to the fact that the Singapore Petroleum Company, which supplies bulk automotive diesel oil, marine gas oil, gasoline and liquid petroleum gas, had a facility right beside the raging fire.

Fearing a potential “domino effect”, Major Balakrishnan said: “What was on my mind was actually, if this goes off then what you will have is fire cascading down further. Then as far as your imagination can run, then the fire will run that wild.”

Another personnel member from Jurong Fire Station, Lieutenant Tan Chun Hui, 26, Rota Commander, described the blaze as a “towering inferno”.

She said: “The flames were about 20 to 30 metres high. I have never seen anything like it before, I believe a lot of my colleagues have never seen anything like that before. When we were there, we could feel and hear constant explosions and see flaming cylinders… being thrown in the air. They would land in the neighbouring premises which was very worrying.”

A total of 35 emergency vehicles and about 120 firefighters were deployed to extinguish what was described by SCDF as the largest LPG fire it has had to combat.

At the height of firefighting operations, SCDF personnel used seven water jets, including an unmanned firefighting machine.

Alerted around 5pm, they managed to mitigate the fire after two hours.

Firefighters described huge flames, and constant explosions, as they battled the blaze in Jalan Buroh. Photo: Singapore Civil Defence Force.

Another SCDF member deployed to the scene was 27-year-old Lieutenant (Volunteer) Lin Jia Wei, who said this was the most impactful experience in his three years with the force.

The third-year materials science and engineering student at National University of Singapore, who will be entering his final year in August, said he volunteered after his operationally ready date because he wanted to experience being in a fire station.

He said: “When I was at the scene, my mother actually called me twice. But I couldn’t pick up the call so she was very worried because she knew that I was volunteering that day.”

But after the emergency had been dealt with, the personnel at the scene felt a strong sense of achievement.

Major Balakrishnan said: “The first thing (I felt) was that it was very nice to see all of the guys looking at one another saying ‘good job’, motivating each other. That camaraderie and sense of achievement is one of my lasting feelings from this fire.”

The SCDF team suffered no injuries in the operation. “We went in as a force and we came back as one, that was a lasting memory. You could see despite everyone being tired, they had smiles on their faces. The sense of positivity was very high.”

SCDF said that the cause of the fire is currently under investigation.