Jem mall has another incident after sprinkers go off

SINGAPORE - Jem the mall, opened almost a year ago on June 15, after several delays.

Just after its first anniversary, it seems like the mall was raining on its own parade.

"Seriously? Is this really happening again?" thought Ms Adeline Wong yesterday as she saw water gushing from the ceiling outside her store.

The sales assistant works at clothing stall Lowrys Farm, on the first floor of the Jurong mall.

Last year, Ms Wong was working at the store when a water pipe on the first floor ceiling burst, causing the ceiling to collapse and flood the entire area.

This time, she was in the store at around 12.15pm with another colleague when she heard water gushing right outside one of their two entrances.

"The water came suddenly," she said.

They closed their store doors to limit the water that was flowing in, but it was still hit.

Mall management Lend Lease said the incident occurred after a sprinkler system on level three was activated. Water then flowed onto levels B1, 1 and 2.

By the time the water stopped flowing - about five minutes later - water had filled up to 3cm high on the ground floor of the mall.

When The New Paper visited the store at around 5pm, the parquet floor had absorbed a fair amount of water and swelled up.

The bottom of some of the wooden shelves were also wet. Ms Wong said that the store's entire floor had been replaced last year following the previous episode.

Fortunately, most its merchandise was not placed on the ground and was unaffected.

"I might be one of the unluckiest people around to have gone through this twice," said Ms Wong.

"It is so troublesome to clean up the place after the flood."

GUSH OF WATER

Many other tenants in the area were also affected by the sudden gush of water that was released from the sprinklers.

Ms Joan Decastro got more than she bargained for on her first day of work at Astalift, a store selling skincare products on the first floor.

"At first, I thought that the mall was open air and that it was raining outside as there was so much water.

"It is such an eventful first day for me," she said.

One of the mall security officers later told her that around 20 shops on the basement, first and second floors of the building were affected by the flood.

TNP was unable to visit the other floors as they had been closed off to the public.

The Lend Lease spokesman said only a small section of the mall's common areas and some shops on levels B1, 1 and 2 were affected. For the rest of the mall, it was business as usual.

Delayed Opening:

The mall was slated to open for business on June 11 last year, but the grand opening was delayed for four days due to the lack of required fire permits.

The grand opening also experienced a few hiccups surfacing from a faulty escalator and air conditioning problems.

Fires:

Two fires broke out at the shopping mall within a span of four days last year.

The first fire occurred in the Fairprice Xtra outlet on Aug 14, when a deep fryer unit burst into flames, injuring three workers.

Four days later, on Aug 17, another fire broke out when a car in the underground carpark burst into flames. Thousands of shoppers were evacuated.

Floods:

A burst water pipe on the first-storey ceiling of the shopping mall caused the entire section of the ceiling to collapse and cause a flood. Three women were sent to hospital with minor injuries

This article was first published on June 18, 2014.
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