The Building and Construction Authority (BCA ) claimed that a gas explosion earlier on Tuesday ( October 8 ) was to blame for the collapse of two shophouses along Syed Alwi Road.
“BCA was alerted to a gas explosion event where two 2-storey shophouse products at 84 &, 85 Mian Alwi Road had partly collapsed”, it said in a Twitter post.
After the event, BCA sent designers to check the structural integrity of the adjacent structures and the shophouse models.
” The back part of the two shophouse products have largely collapsed”, it said.
” The explosion also caused damage to the front facade and staircase of unit 84 .” The other nearby buildings are secure and were not the victims of the blast.
BCA claimed its professionals have instructed the users to immediately install security measures to block off the two units from the general public.
Additionally, it issued a Harmful Building Order and Closing Buy to the individual owners of the two shophouse units to interlock the structures.
They are also required to appoint a skilled expert quickly to provide advice on the best course of action to prevent the threat, conduct thorough studies, and recommend permanent remediation, according to BCA.
Member of Parliament Denise Phua ( PAP-Jalan Besar ) visited the scene following the incident.
Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers led her to a broken shophouse behind the cordoned off place.
In response to questions from reporters about the architectural integrity of various local shophouses, she said,” The near places seem to be healthy, but they are going to evaluate it further and ensure that further investigations are done in bright daylight.”
The two models that are currently in danger are certainly not safe.  , The , side , properties are considered healthy for now, but that needs to be validated”.