Fire breaks out at The Bencoolen: Residents were 'covered in black smoke' while recording videos

A fire broke out on the 11th floor of a condominium along Bencoolen Street on Apr 15.

Stomper Oliver alerted Stomp to the incident and shared a 14-and-a-half-minute video recorded on his iPhone 14 Plus showing Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) vehicles and firefighters at the The Bencoolen.

"At first, there was white smoke coming out from the left side of the building that was facing OG, my sister thought that it was the haze coming from Indonesia," Oliver said.

He said the smoke then turned grey and subsequently, black.

"At that point, we could hear the fire alarm from the opposite building, but the residents were not evacuating," he said.

That was when he went to his window and began recording.

In the video, some people are seen evacuating the building while crowds gather nearby.

"Before the police arrived, the passers-by were walking past the fireman as they were preparing to go upstairs, and I felt that they were hindering their progress," Oliver added.

"It was quite funny as in the video, you could see some of the residents in The Bencoolen recording videos while being covered in black smoke.

"Some families even brought their children out to the balcony to try to get a glimpse of the fire."

He told Stomp that a 'huge puff of black smoke' came from the afflicted unit and travelled to his residential building across the street.

"I felt feat for the affected residents but the firemen were very efficient and managed to subdue the fire within 15 minutes of the recording."

In response to a Stomp query, the SCDF said they were alerted to the fire at 2.15pm.

The fire involved the contents of a kitchen in an 11th-floor unit, an SCDF spokesperson said.

It was extinguished by SCDF using a water jet.

There were no reported injuries and the cause of the fire is under investigation.