Electrical Fire

The insulation was burnt outside the retainer clip, but inside was still in good consition. The fuse also did not blow. So, can surmise that the possible cause of fire was over-tightening of the clip.

The power point was affixed on wooden panel and there was a cabinet beside. The fire quickly spread to these but fortunately, the sprinkler was directly overhead. Damage was limited.

Learning points:
1. Do not obstruct fire fighting equipment
2. Check plugs and conenctions regularly for any sign of overheating.

Fire breaks out, 11 injured

Morning blaze at the former Paramount Hotel took SCDF personnel five hours to put out

by Amanda Lee

04:45 AM Jul 17, 2012

SINGAPORE - The fire alarm went off as Mr Florante Mollena was surfing the Internet in his room on the ninth floor of East Village Hotel at 9am yesterday, but he brushed it off thinking it was just a drill.

He then looked out of the window and saw billowing black smoke. "I panicked … I quickly packed my things and ran down the stairs with another five or six hotel guests," said Mr Mollena, a 38-year-old Filipino who was in Singapore on a business trip.

The fire at the former Paramount Hotel created a black cloud of smoke so immense it could be seen several kilometres away at the Central Business District. It took five hours to put out the fire.

Narrowly avoiding being caught in the building while the fire raged was Bangladeshi construction worker Mohammad Nazrul Islam. He and his 15 colleagues could not enter the building to do renovation work when they reached at around 8.40am.

"I come to work, I see smoke come out of the building," said the 32-year-old, who was supposed to start work at 9.30am.

Lieutenant-Colonel Abdul Razak, Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) Public Affairs Director, told Channel NewsAsia the blaze was one of the more challenging fires the SCDF has faced in recent years.

The SCDF was informed of the fire at 9.06am, and arrived within eight minutes with 19 SCDF vehicles and 80 SCDF personnel. The fire was in the basement of the front block - a retail annex - and involved vast quantities of polystyrene boards and other construction materials including flammable liquid. It did not spread to the main building.

Three main challenges to the operation were the raging fire at the basement, the zero visibility for the firefighters and the difficulty in getting to the fire in the basement due to the stacking of construction materials.

Fifty personnel were evacuated in a search-and-rescue operation. The SCDF said 11 were injured: Two SCDF personnel, five adults and four children.

A Singapore General Hospital spokesperson said seven of the 11 were discharged yesterday. The remaining four are in the high dependency ward but their conditions are stable.

Mr Raphael Saw, Chief Operating Officer for the Hospitality Business Group at Far East Organization, said the hotel has offered guests assistance in medical treatments, arranged for alternative accommodation for guests and helped to facilitate their ongoing travel arrangements, he added.

Marine Parade GRC Member of Parliament Goh Chok Tong visited the site yesterday evening to assess the damage. On his MParader Facebook page, he thanked the SCDF team, whom he described as "brave men".

Source: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120717-0000028/Fire-breaks-out,-11-injured

Loud bangs then fire at Tuas incinerator

Source: AsiaOne
Sunday, May 06, 2012      

SINGAPORE - An incinerator at a waste management plant in Tuas caught fire early Sunday morning. According to witness statements, three loud bangs were heard before flames were sighted.
An eyewitness told the Straits Times that technicians on duty were transporting oil sludge into a funnel leading to the incinerator when they heard the three loud explosive bangs, followed by the flames.
The technicians then sounded the alarm and left the control room, which reportedly caught fire just seconds later.
The roof also partially collapsed, reported the English daily.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they were alerted to the fire at around 12.50am at Eco SWM, in Tuas. Deploying three fire engines, SCDF officers put out the fire within 30 minutes of their arrival.
A SCDF spokesperson said that all 25 employees who were onsite when the incident happened are accounted for. No injuries have been reported.

Economy may lose more than $100m if refinery is closed for a month: Economists

Pulau Bukom Shell refinery fire: Counting the losses      Published on Oct 5, 2011 in the Straits Times

 

What Shell's Pulau Bukom offshore petroleum complex in Singapore looked like after a fire was put out on Sept 29. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

By Robin Chan

 

The all clear was given on Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery site on Tuesday, even as operations remain in the process of being shut down. An all-clear safety siren was sounded at 2pm. However, the area around what is known as pump house 43, which is where the fire broke out seven days ago, is still under 'strict control' according to an internal staff memo.

The local economy could suffer a hit of more than a $100 million if the massive Bukom refinery closes for a month, economists have said. The oil giant's plant, which refines 500,000 barrels a day and is Shell's largest in the world, was shut down following a 32-hour fire last week.

Economists looked at the value added to the economy from the petroleum refining and petrochemicals industries, to estimate the cost of closing the plant. Naturally, the costs will vary depending on how long the closure lasts and how much economic activity is lost.

Shell may shut entire refinery at Pulau Bukom

Posted: 29 September 2011 2041 hrs
(www.channelnewsasia.com)

SINGAPORE: As the fire at Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery continues, the company says it will shut down the whole facility if that's what it takes to put out the blaze completely. A full shutdown will take two days.

The company has shut several units in the vicinity of the fire at the 500,000-barrels-a-day refinery including a hydrocracker, Shell said earlier.

Speaking at a media conference on Thursday evening, Shell Singapore chairman Lee Tzu Yang said they are working to identify the source that is still feeding the fire which broke out on Wednesday afternoon.

The fire is confined to a pump house and a complex interconnected system of pipelines. The pipes are no longer in use but still contain fuel, which causes flares when the pipes open up under fire.

Shell Vice-President of Manufacturing Operations East, Martijn van Koten, said the fire is likely related to maintenance work that was being carried out at the time.

However, he declined to give details saying this would be pure speculation.

Shell said investigations will be carried out after the fire is put out, which remains its firm priority.

Mr van Koten said the strategy is to starve the fire and contain it in an area where it can be put out.

Fresh explosions were heard at the refinery around noon on Thursday.

Witnesses at the Pasir Panjang port and at West Coast said they saw more black smoke and fireballs shooting into the sky.

Ben Koh, an eyewitness at Pasir Panjang port, said: "The fireball was 10, 20 metres in height. After that I can see small flames, but ... from a small portion of the island."

He said the smoke got thicker, with the smell of petrol in the air. "It's not really that strong, but you can smell it," he added.

Shell said in a statement that it experienced a surge in the fire at the refinery around noon, but the fire remains contained.

It said the surge in the fire was caused by the remnants of light fuel components where the fire started.

The company said the smoke that several callers to the Channel NewsAsia news hotline said they saw was from hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted.

Shell said it is working closely with the SCDF, and its global fire consultants are also on site to provide input to the team.

In a separate statement earlier Thursday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said fire fighting operations are still underway, but the fire is contained within the bund wall.

SCDF said about 20 water jets are being used to carry out boundary cooling operations to prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks.

Two SCDF fire engines were badly damaged by the fire and one fire engine sustained partial damage.

SCDF said early Thursday that it has about 100 fire fighters fighting the fire with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles.

About 250 essential Shell personnel are also on Pulau Bukom helping with the operations.

The company also said that the six Shell firefighters injured while fighting the initial outbreak have gone back to their normal duties following medical attention.

Fire at Shell Bukom Continues

Bukom Fire continues

Fire still burns at Shell Singapore refinery

(Picture from asiaone.com)

SINGAPORE - A fire continued to burn on Thursday at Royal Dutch Shell's largest refinery, its 500,000 barrel-a-day Singapore plant, but the blaze is under control, the Singapore Civil Defence Force said.

The fire started in the plant on an island off Singapore's shores on Wednesday, forcing Shell to close a hydrocracking unit that helps make diesel fuel, as a safety measure.

"Fire-fighting operations are still underway," the Singapore Civil Defence (SCDF) said in a statement early on Thursday.

"There are about 100 SCDF fire-fighters fighting the fire with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles. About 250 essential Shell personnel are also on Pulau Bukom."

Shell could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement issued earlier, Shell said the fire had been contained and that it had accounted for all staff.

Crude processing units at the plant, which make up more than a third of the island nation's total refining capacity, were running at a reduced rate, Shell said on Wednesday.

Production units at the refinery near the blaze were shut as a precaution. Shell said in the process of the closure a larger flare would be visible. The flare was no cause for alarm, as no toxic vapours were being released, Shell said.

One Shell firefighter suffered a superficial injury, and five others had heat exhaustion and pulled muscles, it added.

MARKET IMPACT

Since Singapore is the world's largest market for fuel oil and Asia's hub for crude and refined product trading, regional prices could take a hit from any disruptions that might arise from the fire, as some capacity has already been taken offline.

Late on Wednesday, Shell said it would continue to supply Singapore's fuel markets with products from storage and other refineries, so the company expects no shortages in the market.

Refinery sources said the fire occurred where finished oil products are transferred from the final production unit into storage tanks by being pumped through pipelines.
Shell is operating its ethylene cracker normally at the plant. The ethylene cracker is typically fed by products from the hydrocracking unit that was shut due to the fire. The company is supplying alternative feedstock to the ethylene cracker to keep it running, Shell had said.

Shell, one of the biggest naphtha traders and suppliers in Asia, sold an unusually heavy volume of at least 40,000 tonnes of prompt October/November naphtha swaps on Wednesday, traders said.

The smoke plume generated from the fire has not affected Singapore so far, the National Environment Agency said. In a statement it said it was keeping close watch on the situation and asked the public not to be alarmed.

Source: www.asiaone.com

Fire at Shell Bukom

Pictures from Asiaone.com

Reuters
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011

SINGAPORE - A fire has intensified at Royal Dutch Shell’s Singapore refinery, the company’s largest, a senior company executive said on Wednesday.

“There is a fire and it grew significantly, but I am not aware of an explosion,” said Lee Tzu Yang, chairman for Shell Companies in Singapore.

“My understanding is that there are no people injured.”

A Shell spokesman had initially said that the fire at the 500,000 barrels per day refinery, which broke out at around 0515 GMT, had been contained.

Eyewitnesses said explosions were heard and the fire worsened at the plant on Bukom Island. A dark cloud of smoke could be seen over mainland Singapore and the Jurong Island oil hub.

“The smoke has become much thicker and flames are rising up five to eight storeys every 15-20 minutes,” said a Reuters eyewitness.

Refinery sources said the fire occurred at an area where clean oil products were pumped from the plant’s secondary units via pipelines into storage tanks and into the wharf area for discharge into tankers as well as for loading.

Shell did not give any details on what operations have been affected. The complex, situated on the island of Pulau Bukom, comprises a 500,000 barrels-per-day refinery and an 800,000 tonnes-per-year cracker.

Source: www.asiaone.com