A fire broke out and destroyed part of a popular plant nursery in Chua Chu Kang on Wednesday evening (July 20), and several caged birds died in the blaze.

No persons were injured and the nursery will remain closed until further notice.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that it was alerted to the fire at 50 Choa Chu Kang Track 14 at 7.35pm that day.

The address is the location of Terrascapes LLP, an exotic plant nursery.

"The fire, which involved rows of potted plants in a nursery, was confined to an area of about 20 metres by 20 metres," SCDF said.

"At the height of the firefighting operation, a total of five water jets were used to contain and prevent the fire from spreading."

The fire was extinguished in 1.5 hours and several caged birds were found dead near the scene of the fire, SCDF added.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Photos and videos of the fire on social media showed that a wall of fire had engulfed part of the nursery, with a large plume of smoke rising into the air.

Another photo showed the aftermath of the fire, where a sizeable area in the nursery was charred, with broken pots on the ground.

Terrascapes is a popular plant nursery here, with more than 11,000 followers on its Facebook page and more than 19,000 followers on Instagram.

The nursery put up a Facebook post on Thursday telling customers that it would be closed until further notice.

"A big ‘thank you’ to everyone for their kind words of support and concern," the nursery said. "We would like to have some time and space to reset and rebuild."

TODAY reached out to the owners of the nursery, but they declined to comment, saying that they were “not in the right frame of mind” to talk about the incident.

Several plant distributors and nurseries expressed their support for Terrascapes through social media.

The Rewilding Company, a plant distributor, announced on its Instagram page on Thursday that it is raising money to help the nursery. All of its proceeds from sales of potting soil will go to Terrascapes, it said.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by JUSTIN ONG

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