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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Carpark blaze destroys 52 bikes
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Cars parked on same deck escape early morning fire; its cause is being investigated </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Diana Othman
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The second-floor deck of the multi-storey carpark in Gangsa Road in Bukit Panjang after the early morning blaze. Several owners were seen salvaging whatever they could. The rest of the carpark and coffee shop on the ground floor were not affected. -- ST PHOTO: AZIZ HUSSIN
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->AN EARLY-MORNING blaze engulfed 52 motorcycles yesterday at a multi-storey carpark in Gangsa Road in Bukit Panjang.
The fire wrecked almost all the motorcycles parked on a second-floor deck which was situated above a 24-hour coffee shop. Cars parked in a separate section on the same floor escaped the blaze.
Charred motorcycle parts greeted The Straits Times at the scene in Block 163A yesterday. Most of the motorcycles on the deck were more or less destroyed, many with their seats melted off and only their frames remaining.
It is not known yet how the fire started. The rest of the multi-storey carpark and the coffee shop on the ground floor were largely unaffected.
The carpark served the surrounding blocks 163 to 168 and several owners were still salvaging whatever they could from the debris.
Two of them, undergraduate Kim Lee, 24, and her boyfriend, Mr David Tan, 25, were huddled gloomily over what used to be their Suzuki GSX-R 1,000cc motorbike as they waited for the tow truck to arrive.
Ms Lee was up late studying for her university examinations when she heard loud popping noises coming from the carpark opposite her block at about 2am.
'At first, I thought there was an army exercise going on, but I looked out of my window and saw a huge fire coming out from the deck where the motorbikes were,' she recalled.
Ms Lee called the fire brigade and quickly woke her boyfriend up.
The $18,000 motorcycle was Mr Tan's main mode of transport.
They rushed to the carpark and, with about 10 other residents, tried to put out the fire with on-site hoses. But it proved too strong for their efforts.
'It was all ablaze like an enormous barbecue. There was just too much smoke and too much fire, though we really tried our best to save our vehicles,' said Ms Lee.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was called in at about 2.30am.
It had the fire under control 15 minutes after it arrived at the scene. The SCDF is still investigating the cause of the blaze to determine if it was arson.
Mr Aziz Daud, 45, a driver who lives nearby, received a call from his son at about 2am that morning to say that his motorbike had been completely destroyed.
Said Mr Aziz solemnly: 'He was crying as he told me. I don't know how he is going to get to work now.'
Mr Aziz, who lives in a nearby block, prefers to park in an open-air carpark farther away as he felt multi-storey carparks were 'unsafe'.
The last reported carpark blaze was in July when 11 motorcycles and three cars were destroyed in a Woodlands carpark. [email protected]
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Cars parked on same deck escape early morning fire; its cause is being investigated </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Diana Othman
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
The second-floor deck of the multi-storey carpark in Gangsa Road in Bukit Panjang after the early morning blaze. Several owners were seen salvaging whatever they could. The rest of the carpark and coffee shop on the ground floor were not affected. -- ST PHOTO: AZIZ HUSSIN
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->AN EARLY-MORNING blaze engulfed 52 motorcycles yesterday at a multi-storey carpark in Gangsa Road in Bukit Panjang.
The fire wrecked almost all the motorcycles parked on a second-floor deck which was situated above a 24-hour coffee shop. Cars parked in a separate section on the same floor escaped the blaze.
Charred motorcycle parts greeted The Straits Times at the scene in Block 163A yesterday. Most of the motorcycles on the deck were more or less destroyed, many with their seats melted off and only their frames remaining.
It is not known yet how the fire started. The rest of the multi-storey carpark and the coffee shop on the ground floor were largely unaffected.
The carpark served the surrounding blocks 163 to 168 and several owners were still salvaging whatever they could from the debris.
Two of them, undergraduate Kim Lee, 24, and her boyfriend, Mr David Tan, 25, were huddled gloomily over what used to be their Suzuki GSX-R 1,000cc motorbike as they waited for the tow truck to arrive.
Ms Lee was up late studying for her university examinations when she heard loud popping noises coming from the carpark opposite her block at about 2am.
'At first, I thought there was an army exercise going on, but I looked out of my window and saw a huge fire coming out from the deck where the motorbikes were,' she recalled.
Ms Lee called the fire brigade and quickly woke her boyfriend up.
The $18,000 motorcycle was Mr Tan's main mode of transport.
They rushed to the carpark and, with about 10 other residents, tried to put out the fire with on-site hoses. But it proved too strong for their efforts.
'It was all ablaze like an enormous barbecue. There was just too much smoke and too much fire, though we really tried our best to save our vehicles,' said Ms Lee.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was called in at about 2.30am.
It had the fire under control 15 minutes after it arrived at the scene. The SCDF is still investigating the cause of the blaze to determine if it was arson.
Mr Aziz Daud, 45, a driver who lives nearby, received a call from his son at about 2am that morning to say that his motorbike had been completely destroyed.
Said Mr Aziz solemnly: 'He was crying as he told me. I don't know how he is going to get to work now.'
Mr Aziz, who lives in a nearby block, prefers to park in an open-air carpark farther away as he felt multi-storey carparks were 'unsafe'.
The last reported carpark blaze was in July when 11 motorcycles and three cars were destroyed in a Woodlands carpark. [email protected]
