Mustafa Centre was fined $17000 on Jan 19 for fire safety violations, says SCDF. These charges included overcrowding and illegally changing external corridors into retail space without a permit.

In an email to STOMP, SCDF said:

"Mustafa Centre was fined $17000 by the Court on Jan 19 for two charges of fire safety violations in the premises. One for overcrowding and the other for illegal change of use of the external corridor for retail purposes without a permit.  

"Mustafa Centre has incurred a string of fire safety offences in the past three years.

"In the past three years, a total of five Fire Hazard Abatement Notices (FHANs), 10 Notices of Composition (NOCs) and 4 Notices of Fire Safety Offence (NFSOs) were served against the management of Mustafa Centre for 37 counts of fire safety violations in their premises.

"Each notice can carry a fine of up to $500. The total amount of composition fines issued through notices amounted to $6,600.  

"Violations to fire safety requirements found include the following:

• Overcrowding
• Obstruction to exits
• Obstruction to exit passageways
• Obstruction to exit and directional signages
• Obstruction to fire fighting provisions
• Obstruction to fire suppression systems
• Unauthorised change of use of external walkways

"In addition to the fines issued through notices, the management of Mustafa Centre has been charged and fined in court previously for the following offences:  

• $6000 for 2 counts of obstructions in Jan 2005
• $8000 for 2 charges of overcrowding in Feb 2009

• $12000 for charges of obstruction of exits and fire fighting provisions in Sep 2009

"During the festive season in Dec 2009, SCDF intensified enforcement inspections at entertainment outlets and commercial premises for fire safety compliance.

"As part of this enforcement, a series of inspections were carried out at Mustafa Centre where several violations were detected and subsequently rectified during the inspections.

"In addition to non-maintenance of fire fighting provisions, there were serious episodes of overcrowding. There were occasions where the occupancy load had exceeded the permitted limit by more than 50% at the 1^st storey level of the main building.

"The permitted occupancy load at this level is 431 persons.

"SCDF views overcrowding as the greatest fire safety concern especially during festive periods as the number of patrons and customers are usually higher. Such recalcitrant violations at Mustafa Centre are serious as these compromise the safety of the patrons to the shopping mall.  

"On the basis of its repeated fire safety violations, SCDF had concurrently submitted a complaint to the Sub-Courts to issue a Fire Hazard Order against Mustafa Centre.  

"A Fire Hazard Order (Abatement Order) was issued to the management of Mustafa Centre on 6th January 2010, which requires them to abate and prevent the recurrence of fire hazards at all times.   

"SCDF will continue to take tough enforcement actions against recalcitrant offenders.

"In extreme cases where there are serious breaches of fire safety regulations in buildings which pose immediate or substantial danger of fire and the safety of persons in the premises cannot be reasonably ensured by other means, SCDF is empowered to effect temporary closure of such premises for up to 72 hours."