SINGAPOREI.

Natural hazards in Singapore

1.1 Natural hazards likely to affect the country
Though Singapore is spared from natural disasters such as earthquakes,
typhoons and volcanic eruptions, the challenges for the emergency
services are in preventing and mitigating man-made disasters in a highly
urbanised environment with many high-rise buildings and Hazardous
Material (HazMat) industries.
The global threat of terrorism has also added a new dimension toemergency preparedness and response for Singapore. The level of recent
terrorist activities in the region, coupled with the possible use of chemical,biological and radiological agents is of great concern to Singapore.
1.2 Recent major disasters
Nicoll Highway Collapse
On 20 Apr 2004 at 1535 hrs, part of Nicoll Highway, a major local road,collapsed, rendering it unusable. Steel structures supporting thetunneling of a subway line beneath the highway had given way, resulting
in a massive cave-in at the construction site which also affected the roadabove it. The 5-day long rescue operations was made even more difficult
by 2 heavy downpours that resulted in dangerous soil conditions which
threatened the stability of neighbouring buildings and the safety of therescuers. A total of 3 were injured and 4 killed.
The rescue operation saw the close cooperation and coordination amongst
various government agencies as well as from the construction company
handling the project. Operation Civil Emergency (Ops CE), a national
response plan for local major disasters, was implemented and many
aspects of the inter-agency response were tested. This high profile
incident highlighted the need for SCDF as the incident manager to work
closely with the media, who were hungry for information to fill up theirnews slots.
Source: ADRC country report1

Pulau Merlimau FireOn 25 Oct 1988, a fire occurred at one of the chemical storage tanks atthe Singapore Refining Company (SRC) on Pulau Merlimau, an off-shoreisland. The fire built up rapidly and spread to the two other nearby tanks.
Fortunately, there were no casualties. The fire-fighting operation lasted 5days and many parts of Singapore were showered by soot from the fire.
The fire highlighted the need to handle large tank fires swiftly,
considering the large number of such tanks located in the south-westernparts of the island.
Hotel New World Collapse
The Hotel New World disaster occurred on 15 Mar 1986 at 1125 hrs. The
six-storey building with 1 basement car park collapsed suddenly due tostructural faults. Rescue operations lasted 7 days. Out of the 50 people
trapped in the rubble, 33 perished while 17 were successfully rescued.
II.

Disaster Management system

2.1 Administrative system

Conventional long form:
Conventional short form:
Government type:
Capital:Administrative divisions:

Republic of Singapore
Singapore
parliamentary republicSingaporenone

Singapore is a city-state with a land surface area of 669 square
kilometers. It has a population of about 4.2 million, with a multiracial
mix of mainly Chinese Malay and Indians and a small minority of otherraces, along with about half a million expatriates and foreign workers.
Singapore’s infrastructure includes one of the world’s busiest airport andseaport with an extensive network of roads and mass rapid transit
system. It is densely populated, with many working and living in
high-rise commercial and residential buildings 1 .

180% of the population resides in high-rise flats.

Source: ADRC country report

2National, Sub-National And Local
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is the national emergency
authority for fire and rescue. SCDF has a workforce of about 5,100 people
comprising 1,700 regular uniformed staff, 200 civilian staff and 3,200
Full-time National Servicemen 2 . In addition, another 10,000
Operationally Ready National Servicemen (ORNSmen) from the reserve
service are available for activation during emergencies.
15 Fire Stations have been established island-wide, with 25 Fire Posts
under the command of the various fire stations. These fire stations andfire posts are staffed by fire-fighters and emergency ambulance service
teams, and form the response bases for both fire and medical emergencies.
Response to an incident is targeted to be within 8 minutes for fire and 11
minutes for emergency medical services.
SCDF has also established special rescue capabilities, including theDisaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), a specially trained unitthat can undertake high-risk fire fighting and rescue operations. Anotherspecial capability unit is the HazMat Incident Teams (HITs), which are
specialised teams trained and equipped to handle hazardous material(HazMat) incidents.
2.2 Legal system, legal framework
The main legislation supporting emergency preparedness and disastermanagement activities in Singapore are:The Civil Defence Act, which provides the legal framework for, amongst
other things, the declaration of a state of emergency and the mobilisationand deployment of operationally ready national service rescuers;
The Fire Safety Act, which provides the legal framework to impose fire
safety requirements on commercial and industrial premises, as well as

2Full-time National Servicemen are Singaporean males who are 18 years old or older and are called

to enlist and serve 2 years of National Service, either in the military, police or civil defence.

Source: ADRC country report3the involvement of the management and owners of such premises inemergency preparedness against fires; andThe Civil Defence Shelter Act, which provides the legal framework forbuildings to be provided with civil defence shelters for use by persons totake refuge during a state of emergency.
2.3 Structure of disaster management
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is the principal policy-making
government body for safety and security in Singapore. In the event of anational disaster, MHA leads at the strategic level of incident
management. At the tactical level, SCDF will coordinate the planningand execution of the multi agency response to mitigate the impact of thedisaster.
SCDF provides effective 24-hour fire fighting, rescue and emergency
ambulance services. Other functions include educating the community as
well as mobilizing the community to be more involved in safety andsecurity. SCDF also enforces fire safety requirements and oversees thecivil defence shelter construction programme and the public warning
system.
SCDF operates a 3-tier command structure, with Headquarters (HQ)
SCDF at the apex commanding 4 Land Divisions. These Divisions aresupported by a network of Fire Stations and Fire Posts strategicallylocated over the island. Operations are based on a multi-tier response.
The Operations Centre at HQ SCDF will despatch the nearest resources
to the incident (additional resources from other fire stations may provide
reinforcements if needed). Further resource requirements can be met by
the Special Rescue Battalion (SRB) 3 , the recall of off-duty fire fighters aswell as Reservist units, known as Operationally Ready National Service(ORNS) units.

3The SRB consists of Full-Time National Service Rescuers. It was formed to augment the regularfire and rescue forces when additional manpower is required.

Source: ADRC country report42.4 Priorities on disaster risk management
SCDF places heavy emphasis on training to equip our personnel with thedesired knowledge, competency, skills and attitudes. The opening of theCivil Defence Academy in Mar 1999 marked a significant milestone in thehistory of the Singapore Civil Defence Force. The Academy, withpurpose-built features, meets the training needs of regulars, national
service personnel, emergency response personnel of the industries, firefighters and rescuers as well as participants from other parts of theworld.
The training facilities in the Academy include the use of state-of-the-art
simulators and modern communication technology to make learning
simpler, more interesting and more realistic.
III.

Disaster management plan

Policy Framework
The Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management activities
undertaken by Singapore in the event of a major disaster are based on
the following main principles:a.

Prevention – The tragic consequences resulting from major incidents
can be minimised through prevention, via a set of comprehensive
government regulations to ensure safety.

b.

Readiness – Readiness is contingent upon preparation. Pre-planningfor possible response to different forms of emergencies enhances
readiness. The contingency plans are exercised regularly;c.

Awareness – The community must be aware of the nature and scopeof disasters. They have to be educated on the importance ofemergency preparedness and involvement in exercises, training andphysical preparations;d.

Coordination (Internal & External) – All local agencies responding
to an emergency must work within a unified framework tocoordinate multi-agency efforts in emergency response andSource: ADRC country report5management of disasters. This will involve swift deployment offorces to mitigate the incident at the tactical level, and to provide
expert advice at the operational level, in order to minimise damage
to lives and property; ande.

Recovery – Rehabilitation of the injured and restoration work is an
important component of the total disaster management programme.
A speedy recovery will enable the affected population to return tonear-normal conditions after a disaster.

Procedures And Mechanisms
SCDF has developed the Operations Civil Emergency (Ops CE) Plan, anational response plan for civil emergencies which outlines the work of
SCDF and all the Related Agencies (RAs) 4 in the management of a majordisaster. Under this plan, SCDF is overall-in-charge of the multi-agency
response. SCDF will direct and co-ordinate the agencies’ responses
through the Joint Planning Staff (JPS) 5 who provide specialist advice tomanage the incident. As highlighted earlier, ORNS units may also bemobilised and deployed should the additional manpower be required.
This national plan is exercised regularly on an annual basis to ensure allagencies are familiar with their roles and functions and develop theirresponse capabilities for incident management. Through such exercises
as well as recent major incidents (e.g. Nicoll Highway collapse etc), theOps CE plan gets refined.
IV.

Budget size on national level

The Budget size for SCDF on national level is about SGD$300 million.

4

There are altogether 22 Related Agencies from various ministries and statutory boards that provide

ground forces for incident management, specialist advice for planning and coordination with IM.
5The JPS are representatives from related agencies who come together to allow better inter-agency

coordination and management of the ground situation.

Source: ADRC country report

6V.

Progress and situations of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA)In line with the five priorities for action under the HFA, SCDF continues
to identify and implement key activities as appropriate to ourcircumstances and capacities. Some of these key activities are elaborated
in detail in the Section VI below.
VI.

Projects on disaster reduction headed by your Ministry

Public Education
While SCDF aims to continually improve on its capabilities to respond toincidents, its ability to manage an incident in the community isinevitably limited. Hence, the emergency response capability of thegeneral public is also enhanced to better prepare the population to handle
emergencies. This is achieved via measures such as educating the public
on In-Place Protection (IPP), a series of protective measures to be taken
at home during a chemical release. Such education takes place via thedistribution of the Civil Defence Emergency Handbook, a handbook on
emergency procedures and skills required for various types ofemergencies.
Other methods of educating the public include the conduct of annualCommunity Exercises, as well as the Home Fire Safety Visit Programme.
The former familiarises the grassroots volunteers and residents on how todeal with large scale emergencies within their neighbourhood, while thelatter provides personal fire safety advice from CD volunteer personnel toregistered residents. To sensitise and get the community more prepared
for terrorist acts, the SCDF also conducts modular-based instructionaltraining for the public under the Community Emergency Preparedness
Programme (CEPP). Through both theoretical and practical training, theprogramme covers First Aid, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR),
Fire Safety and Casualty Evacuation, Emergency Preparedness for Warand dealing with unconventional threats.
Community Involvement
Besides conducting training for residents, SCDF also aims to work handin hand with the community to be more involved in their own safety andsecurity. To serve this purpose, SCDF constantly recruits volunteers fromSource: ADRC country report

7the community. These Civil Defence (CD) Volunteers are trained to assist
the SCDF in operational and public educational activities. Suitable
volunteers have also been sent to attend Instructor Training, and willsubsequently help conduct lessons to residents as auxiliary instructors.
In addition to the CD Volunteers, various community groups have also
been established to assist in Civil Defence. One such group is the Civil
Defence Executive Committees (CDECs). These are grassroots entities
that help to promote CD messages at the community level and assist inorganising various Civil Defence programmes. Also established by SCDF
are the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), emergency
response units consisting of residents living within a particularneighbourhood’s vicinity. During emergencies, the CERTs will work handin hand with the police and SCDF to mitigate the impact of theemergencies on the community.
Aside from these groups set up to work alongside SCDF, SCDF and other
MHA agencies have also established the Community Safety and Security
Programme (CSSP), a framework that encourages the community to lookafter its own safety and security through self-help and mutual support. It
serves to foster community cohesion and harmony among local grassroots
leaders and residents, students and workers. In particular, SCDF
actively facilitates the conduct of CSSPs that focus on fire safety,
emergency preparedness, community vigilance and readiness (e.g. theFire Safety for Market programme, Community Patrols, Emergency
Preparedness for Domestic Maids etc).
VII. ADRC Counterpart
Singapore Civil Defence Force
HQ Singapore Civil Defence Force, 91 Ubi Avenue 4, Singapore 408827

Source: ADRC country report8