SINGAPORE – Two people were sent to hospital and 20 people were evacuated from Lucky Plaza on Oct 20 after a fire broke out in the Orchard Road building.

       In response to queries from The Straits Times, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at about 9.45am.

       The evacuation of the 20 individuals took place before SCDF arrived at the scene.

       SCDF said the fire involved the contents of a charcoal stove in a unit on the sixth floor, adding that members of the public had extinguished the fire using buckets of water before its officers arrived.

       Two people were then taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

       The cause of the fire is under investigation.

       In videos posted on Facebook, about 10 SCDF officers can be seen next to an ambulance, with a crowd forming in front of the entrance to Lucky Plaza. The mall is home to dozens of shops and eateries, many of which cater to Filipino expatriates. The doors to the building were still open, with people exiting and entering.

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       In a post on Facebook at about 10.07am, witness Jane Z Hwee Mei said she was “greeted by a plume of smoke” and a burnt smell.

       She said she was in the middle of having a haircut on the sixth floor when a firefighter entered the hair salon and asked the people inside to evacuate.

       Ms Jane told ST that the hair salon was quite far from the unit where the fire had broken out. At the time, most of the shops on the floor were closed.

       After the firefighter told them to evacuate, Ms Jane’s hairdresser quickly finished the haircut before they left the unit.

       Although the sixth floor had been evacuated, Ms Jane said she was surprised to see many people still patronising shops on the first to fifth floors. “I was a little worried at first, in case things exploded or something, but the rest (of the customers) were chill, so I didn’t freak out,” she said.

       Walking past the affected unit, she said the interior was filled with smoke, which had begun billowing out into the corridors.

       Speaking to a reporter from Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News, a clothing store employee said he saw white smoke coming out of a restaurant, but the smoke was not thick.

       “We initially continued our business until an officer came to the door to conduct an evacuation,” he said.

       Security guards were also seen assisting with evacuations.

       Fires broke out in Lucky Plaza in 2014 and 2015.

       The 2014 fire involved a food stall in a foodcourt located in the basement, and resulted in one woman being taken to hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

       The fire in 2015, which started in the kitchen of a restaurant on the second floor, caused the building to be filled with smoke, sending customers running from the mall.