500 evacuated after kitchen fire at Grand Hyatt Singapore
It started in hotel restaurant kitchen, put out by sprinkler
A visitor from Hong Kong was at the gym of the Grand Hyatt Singapore when a fire started in the hotel.
But the gym is in a separate wing of the Scotts Road hotel and he did not immediately know about the fire.
By the time he found out, the lifts had been deactivated, and he said he had to look around for a while before he was able to reach an evacuation path.
The tourist told Shin Min Daily News that he learned about what was happening only when a friend who was in the lobby called him.
He was one of about 500 people evacuated yesterday after the fire started in one of the kitchens at the hotel's mezza9 restaurant.
Footage of the incident showed thick grey smoke coming out of the hotel and settling around the building's frontage.
The hotel's spokesman said: "Because the safety and well-being of our guests and associates are our top priority, we decided to evacuate everyone from Grand Tower shortly after."
In an interview with Shin Min, a female hotel occupant from Indonesia said she had brought her 77-year-old mother to Singapore for a health check-up.
At the time of the fire, she and her mother were at the pool, while her daughter was alone in the hotel room.
After hearing the alert, they evacuated and met downstairs.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post that they responded to a fire at 10 Scotts Road at about 11.20am.
"The fire involved a kitchen stove and Kitchen Exhaust Ducting... the fire was extinguished by the water sprinkler prior to SCDF's arrival," it said.
SCDF said they used two water jets to prevent any potential rekindling of the fire from the hot burnt surfaces.
"There were no reported injuries," SCDF said. "The cause of the fire is under investigation."
SCDF gave the clearance for guests and others to go back into the hotel at 12.40pm.
The Grand Hyatt spokesman said all hotel operations had returned to normal, except at the mezza9 restaurant.
He said: "We extend our sincere apologies to our guests, associates and neighbours for the inconvenience caused by this incident."
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