At 1145 hrs, SCDF received a call informing that a fire involving a large vegetation area had occurred at Tampines Service Road towards Buangkok East Drive. SCDF resources which included 5 fire engines, 3 red rhino, 2 fire bikes, 1 tracked fire vehicle and 3 support vehicles were dispatched. A total of 12 water jets were set up to bring the fire under control. Some 50 fire fighters are still at scene carrying out damping down operations. No one was injured from the fire.

The present dry spell being experienced in Singapore has seen outbreaks of grass, lallang and vegetation fires. As of 8th March 2010, the SCDF responded to 206 cases of such fires this year. However, the figures remain relatively low as compared to the peak period last year. In January 2009, there were 182 cases of vegetation fires and 159 fires in February 2009. There were 523 vegetation fires in the whole of 2009, an increase of 97 cases from the 426 fires in 2008.

The vegetation fires that took place this year were generally of small scale, should the dry conditions and high temperature continue, occurrences of such fires may increase. In view of this, the SCDF would like to appeal to the public to help minimise such fire occurrences by observing the following: