A car in an Ang Mo Kio carpark ended up a blackened heap after it caught fire on its own on Tuesday afternoon. It was the third such case in four days.
One car went up in flames in a Tampines carpark in the early hours of Sunday morning, and a similar case was reported in a Woodlands carpark on Saturday evening. No one was injured in the incidents, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said.
It was alerted to the fire at Block 609, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, at 4.38pm. The blaze in the engine compartment was extinguished using a water jet and a fire extinguisher. Residents near the block said they heard loud bangs as the car burned, Shin Min Daily News reported. There were burn marks on a lorry and a car which were parked next to the burning car, the report added.
On Sunday morning, the SCDF was called to extinguish another car fire in an open carpark around Block 464, Tampines Street 44. The fire occurred at about 4.40am. And at about 6.20pm on Saturday, a car parked at Block 149, Woodlands Street 13, also caught fire. Both fires were put out with a water jet.
It is not known what caused the fires, but parked cars can catch fire if there is a short circuit, Mr Joey Lim, managing director of Harmony Motors, told The Straits Times. Another possible scenario is that the car had just stopped running, and was still hot when something highly combustible came into contact with it, said Mr Lim. All three fires are under investigation, SCDF said.