The Robinson’s Department Store building at Raffles Place was destroyed by a fire that broke out at around 9.55 am on 21 November 1972. The fire, which was one of the worst in Singapore’s history, also caused damage to the roof of the Overseas Union Bank next door ...
One of Singapore's biggest fires occurred in Bukit Ho Swee on 25 May 1961. The fire razed a 100-acre area (0.4 sq km) consisting of a school, shops, factories and wooden and attap houses, leaving some 16,000 kampong dwellers homeless and four fatalities. The property ...
Pulau Merlimau was one of Singapore’s southern islands off the coast of Jurong before it became part of Jurong Island. It used to house the refinery of the Singapore Refining Company (SRC), a joint venture between British Petroleum, Caltex Petroleum Corporation ...
Singapore’s first firefighters formed a brigade in 1869, which was officially recognised as the Singapore Fire Brigade in 1888. The current firefighting force is known as the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
The old Sembawang Fire Station is located at 80 Admiralty Road West, within the grounds of the former Sembawang Naval Base. Built in 1941, the fire station previously served the naval base. When British military forces withdrew from Singapore in 1971, the naval ...
McAlister & Co. was founded in 1857 by two Scots: Alexander McAlister and James Parker Niven, who saw the opportunity to set up a trading partnership in Singapore. During its initial years, the partnership was involved in general trade and Australian pearling. ...
On 28 September 2011, a fire broke out at an oil refinery owned by Royal Dutch Shell on Pulau Bukom. The blaze began near a system of pipelines carrying various petroleum products and lasted for 32 hours before being extinguished. The Singapore Civil Defence Force ...
The Central Fire Station, also known as the Hill Street Fire Station, is Singapore’s oldest surviving fire station. Completed in 1909, the distinctive red-and-white brick building was gazetted as a national monument by the Preservation of Monuments Board on 18 ...
Robinsons Department Store was founded in 1858 in Singapore by Philip Robinson and James Gaborian Spicer. Regarded as the grande dame of Singapore’s department stores, Robinsons was a shopping destination much loved by Singaporeans. However, following several years ...
Gay World was one of three amusement parks built in Singapore before World War II and around which Singapore’s nightlife revolved from the 1920s to the ’60s. The other two were New World and Great World. Gay World was a popular entertainment joint before the advent ...
The explosion and fire on board Greek oil tanker S. T. Spyros on 12 October 1978 was described as Singapore’s “worst post-war disaster in terms of lives lost”. Seventy-six people died and 69 others were injured in the accident.
In October 2001, some Singapore members of a regional Islamic militant group known as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), meaning “Islamic Community”, began planning a bomb attack on specific targets in Singapore. The bombings were scheduled for execution in either December ...
The former Custom House building located on Maxwell Road served as the headquarters of the Department of Customs and Excise (now Singapore Customs) from June 1932 to August 1989. The building was designed by Frank Dorrington Ward, who was the chief architect of ...
Founded in Calcutta, India by Robert Laidlaw in 1882, Whiteaway Laidlaw was a department store that opened a premier branch in Singapore in 1900. Offering products that appealed to the Europeans and wealthy locals, the outlet in Singapore was located on D’Almeida ...
Choo Keng Kwang (b. 3 June 1931, Singapore–d. 14 December 2019, Singapore), a first-generation Singaporean artist, was well-known for his oil paintings of landscape, animals and nature. A former school principal of Sin Hua School, Choo later headed the Art Education ...
SPRING (Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board) Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, was established with the aim of helping Singapore enterprises grow as well as to build trust in Singapore products and services. The agency ...
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is a uniformed organisation that provides emergency services to the nation both during peacetime and under crisis. It serves not only as a fire-fighting authority, but also provides first-aid and rescue services, and acts ...
Pulau Senang is one of Singapore’s southern islands. Its land area is about 81.7 ha, and it is located 24 km from the mainland. Now a military live-firing zone, Pulau Senang is famous for being a penal settlement from 1960 to 1963. The prison-without-bars experiment ...
Located on Keppel Road near the entrance to the island of Sentosa, St James Power Station was a coal-fired power station built by the British between 1924 and 1927. The power station was decommissioned in 1976 as it was unable to meet Singapore’s rising demand ...
On 3 February 2004, Singapore Airlines (SIA) launched its first A345 LeaderShip nonstop flight service between Singapore and Los Angeles, United States. The 14,700-kilometre journey was made possible using the new, long-range Airbus aircraft, the A340-500. The ...