54-year-old woman dies in Jurong East building blaze, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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54-year-old woman dies in Jurong East building blaze

This article is more than 12 months old

She was in the office toilet yesterday when she saw smoke.

Madam Ana Rosnah, 44, brushed it off, thinking someone was smoking in one of the cubicles.

But she had a bad feeling when she looked out the window and saw that her colleagues on the ground floor were not entering the building.

When she started seeing thick black smoke, she knew she had to tell her colleagues inside the building to get out.

A fire broke out yesterday at the eight-storey Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT) building at 30, Toh Guan Road, opposite IMM in Jurong East.

One person died.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at 7.40am.

The warehouse fire was extinguished within 40 minutes.

Madam Ana, who works at a supply chain management company in the building, told The New Paper: "I saw my colleagues who were arriving for work just standing outside, and I wondered why they were not entering the building.

"That was when I saw black smoke, and I realised there was actually a fire."

She dashed back to her office and informed everyone about the fire, and they rushed out through the emergency exit.

Her colleague, who wanted to be known only as Ms Azlyni, 29, was on her way to work when she saw the blaze.

The warehouse operator said: "I saw somebody being brought out by SCDF officers, and it looked like the burns on her legs were severe."

A police spokesman said a 54-year-old woman was later pronounced dead after being taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital with burn injuries.

She turned out to be Madam Ana's colleague, Madam Neo Siew Eng.

About 50 people were evacuated.

When TNP arrived at the scene, metal debris could be seen on the ground.

Security guard Muhammad Jalal, 58, who works at IMM, told TNP: "I saw the fire grow from the second storey to the top quickly."

TNP understands that the fire had started in the second storey of the building.

When contacted, CIT said it was monitoring the situation and that its top priority was the safety of its tenants.

Investigations are ongoing.

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