A firefighter from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) lost consciousness while fighting a conflagaration at the CK Building on Wednesday (Aug 17).
He has since been discharged from hospital and is recuperating at home.
Sergeant Muhammad Hidir, a section commander and full-time national serviceman (NSF), was among the first firefighting teams to rush to Tampines Street 92 where a blaze had engulfed the industrial building.
Sgt Hidir and his team entered the building cautiously wearing breathing apparatus, said SCDF.
They went up to the fourth floor, where the fire was raging, to fight it.
But there were “highly combustible” products there, and the entire floor was “alight with flames rapidly raging out of control”, SCDF said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
“The fire had also engulfed the floor above and was spreading to the sixth floor. There were also multiple explosions from ‘flying’ aerosol cans,” said SCDF.
Mr Hidir and his team retreated as the situation became life threatening.
While retreating from the inferno, he was overcome by heat exhaustion and soon lost consciousness.
Mr Hidir was attended to by fellow firefighters and paramedics and rushed to Changi General Hospital.
He has been discharged from hospital and is on medical leave, said SCDF.
“Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I’m doing just fine right now. Really never expected the overwhelming show of concern online…and a big thank you to my buddies for always looking out for one another in the heat of action,” said Mr Hidir.
The fire at CK Building burned for hours, but no member of public was injured.
The blaze began at about 1.30pm on Wednesday, and was extinguished at 6am on Thursday – more than 15 hours later.
Highly flammable paper products and household aerosol cans fed the fire.
The building has been damaged structurally, and will be closed for reconstruction work, said the Building and Construction Authority on Thursday.
Source: www.straitstimes.com
