Like a bizarre scene out of technological parable TV series Black Mirror (season two, episode two), a group of spectators simply whipped out their mobile phones to record an ongoing calamity instead of doing something about it.
For about 10 minutes yesterday, about 20 onlookers at Ghim Moh Road simply took pictures and recorded footage of a taxi going up in flames on their mobile phones before someone eventually stepped in to extinguish the fire. Some were even spotted taking down the taxi's licence plat number.
According to The New Paper, 39-year-old Lim Yee Chen was working at a nearby coffee shop when he smelled burning rubber. He went out to the incident site and saw that nobody was taking appropriate action, so he grabbed an extinguisher from the coffee shop and tried to put it out. Later on, he used a water hose to continue extinguishing the flames, which went out in less than a minute.
The driver of the taxi was present at the scene, but he was too afraid to put out the fire by himself and called the police. He reported having troubles with his taxi previously, but he did not forsee the engine becoming a fire hazard.
The fire was already put out by the time officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived at the scene. No injuries were reported during the incident.
Photo: Shin Min Daily News
Like a bizarre scene out of technological parable TV series Black Mirror (season two, episode two), a group of spectators simply whipped out their mobile phones to record an ongoing calamity instead of doing something about it.
For about 10 minutes yesterday, about 20 onlookers at Ghim Moh Road simply took pictures and recorded footage of a taxi going up in flames on their mobile phones before someone eventually stepped in to extinguish the fire. Some were even spotted taking down the taxi's licence plat number.
According to The New Paper, 39-year-old Lim Yee Chen was working at a nearby coffee shop when he smelled burning rubber. He went out to the incident site and saw that nobody was taking appropriate action, so he grabbed an extinguisher from the coffee shop and tried to put it out. Later on, he used a water hose to continue extinguishing the flames, which went out in less than a minute.
The driver of the taxi was present at the scene, but he was too afraid to put out the fire by himself and called the police. He reported having troubles with his taxi previously, but he did not forsee the engine becoming a fire hazard.
The fire was already put out by the time officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived at the scene. No injuries were reported during the incident.
Photo: Shin Min Daily News