Parkway Parade mall closed: 'We heard the store is drenched'

Shoppers were surprised yesterday when Parkway Parade shopping mall was closed for a day due to a fire on Sunday night.

Employees working in the Marine Parade mall told The Straits Times yesterday that the fire broke out in a retail store on the second storey.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire close to midnight.

When SCDF officers arrived, they found the blaze in a storeroom and put out the flames with a water jet. There were no reported injuries and no evacuation was conducted.

Yesterday, reporters saw workers in safety helmets coming out of the building.

Staff at the entrance told the public that the retail mall was closed.

Ms Jenny Khoo, general manager of Parkway Parade, said: "We will be keeping the retail mall in Parkway Parade closed till further notice as we continue the checks and rectification works. The office tower and the banks on Level 1 (HSBC, DBS, UOB & Citibank) remain open."

One retailer told The Straits Times after waiting to get in: "I was worried that it was my shop, which is a children's clothing shop and is also on the second level. I have no idea if our shop was affected," she said.

Madam Margaret Chia, 68, a part-time retail assistant at one of the stores, told The Straits Times: "We received a call in the morning telling us not to come, but we came anyway to see the situation.

"We are worried. We heard that the store is drenched," she said.

Madam Hazel Lim, 54, who works at Taro Ball along Marine Parade Central, said there were people milling around in the morning as they did not know the mall was closed.

Many - whom Madam Lim said appeared to be shop assistants - were just walking around as they were not sure if the mall was going to reopen.

She overheard a few grousing about whether there would be a salary dock or if they would be forced to take a day's leave.

On whether business was affected, she said "better business actually!"

As people were hanging around and waiting, more people patronised the stall yesterday, she said.

- Additional reporting by Cheryl Ying

This article was first published on May 17, 2016.
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