Hawkers worry about new stall design after fire

Foodcourt operator Canopy Hawkers Group will check if additional mitigation measures are needed after hawkers raised concerns following a fire at the newly opened Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre on Tuesday.

One hawker said she had to climb over the fixed counter at the front of her stall when an unattended stove at Long Xiang Ho Chiak Scissors Cut Curry Rice caught fire.

Several hawkers also pointed out that fire extinguishers are placed beyond their reach on walls outside their stalls.

Canopy Hawkers Group said the design layout of the stalls was made in consultation with a Qualified Person prior to deployment and is in compliance with the Fire Code, including on means of escape. 

A Qualified Person is a registered architect or a professional engineer.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on Tuesday said that members of the public had put out the fire with a fire extinguisher before its officers arrived. There were no reported injuries.

The sprinkler system was also activated.

The single-storey hawker centre has 44 stalls, which are arranged in five hexagonal structures of eight to nine stalls each. Each stall has openings at the back leading into a common area shared by other stalls in the same ring.

There is only a single common door allowing exit from the interior of each ring.

Madam Christine Lock, 47, who runs a nasi lemak stall two stalls away from the one that caught fire, said she was with her husband when the fire broke out.

She said she managed to scramble over the fixed counter, which is about 80cm tall, but is worried about older and less mobile hawkers.

She said: “What if there’s a 70-year-old man in the stall, who may not be fit enough to climb over? What then?”

Madam Lock said that to reach the fire extinguishers placed in front of the stalls, hawkers have to go out the back of their stall, and then past the single common exit door.

She added that she was thankful that an alert customer handed her the extinguisher after the fire broke out.

A hawker, who wanted to be known only as Mr Lee, said: “It’s quite ridiculous. The fire extinguisher is far away. If the back catches fire, then I have to jump out over the front counter.”

“At least I can still get out,” said the 29-year-old, who runs Mexican-Indian fusion food stall Snack That Food Up. “But others may not be able to.”

Another hawker, who wanted to be known only as Ming, said it takes her about a minute to walk from her front counter to the back exit, and round to her stall front.

She said: “Sometimes, customers with a disability buy my food. Once, it was peak lunch hour and I had to carry someone’s plate to the table for him, but there were other people queuing too.

“It wastes a lot of my time to walk one big round, since there isn’t an opening at the front counter.”

She added that she had raised the issue with Canopy Hawkers Group several times.

Darren (not his real name), who has been in the hawker business for more than 10 years and runs a stall at the hawker centre, said stallholders were informed of Canopy Hawkers Group’s “front counter clause” prior to the centre’s opening in December 2022.

The Straits Times understands that stallholders had signed contracts which state that the stall front should allow for no entrance or exit of any person from the front of the stall.

Tenants also have to place fire extinguishers within the stall.

Canopy Hawkers Group, which has had experience running various foodcourts and coffee shops over the past 12 years, said the hawker centre, which is its first, was inspected for fire safety on Sept 13, 2022.

An SCDF spokesman confirmed on Saturday that a Temporary Fire Permit, allowing the owner of the hawker centre to operate for 11 months before obtaining a Fire Safety Certificate, was issued to Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre on Sept 13.

The permit is issued only if the fire safety work of the project has been satisfactorily completed with only very minor outstanding issues, he added.

The certificate will be issued only after the completion of all fire safety works in the project.

The spokesman said the placement of fire extinguishers at the hawker centre complies with fire safety requirements – that stallholders need not travel more than 15m to access a fire extinguisher.

But SCDF understands that the design of the shopfront counters may make it challenging for stallholders to reach them.

The spokesman added: “SCDF will work with the building owner of Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre to review the placement of the fire extinguishers to enable easier reach for the stallholders.”

Darren said he did not think of the fire safety issue until the incident on Tuesday.

“I didn’t feel that it was such a big problem, but now after the fire, I am more concerned. It’s very important for the elderly to have more than one exit,” he said.