A chemical cleaning company and one of its directors were fined a total of $154,000 on Thursday, for negligence that led to the deaths of four workers from chemical burns and serious injuries sustained by their supervisor.

The court heard that insufficient care had been taken on Feb 27, 2009 in the handling of chemicals used during a routine cleaning of two heat exchangers at Chemic Industries Pte Ltd, a chemical cleaning company in Tuas.

The four workers and their supervisor, employees of Chemic Industries, had to be rushed to hospital with burns from an acidic chemical solution.

The exchangers being cleaned were used to manufacture lycra at Invista Singapore Fibres, a fibre and polymer manufacturer. A previous cleaning of the exchangers by another company using water jets had been unsuccessful, resulting in some lycra polymer solution being left in the exchangers

SINGAPORE - Shell is still working with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) to contain the fire at Pulau Bukom.

A statement from the company at 2pm said their global fire consultants are on site to provide input to the team.

Shell said that at around noon, they experienced a surge in the flames - visible from the mainland, with witnesses in the Pasir Panjang area saying they heard at least three explosions. However, the fire "continues to be contained", said Shell.

The source of the surge in the fire was "remnant light fuel components where the fire originated".

The smoke observed is from "hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted", added Shell in its statement.

Singapore - 300 metric tonnes of hydrochloric acid leaked from a chemical processing plant in Jalan Samulun - West of Singapore - yesterday morning.

Acid leaked from a damaged tank owned by Chemical Industry Far East Limited. However, the leakage was confined to the bund walls enclosing the plant.

When contacted, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) told AsiaOne that no one was injured in the incident.

The SCDF set up ground monitors and used water to neutralise the vapour and dilute the leakage. The remnants of the leakage has since been pumped into an empty storage tank.

A FIRE broke out at about 10.40am at a chemical company in Gul Lane in Tuas on Monday.

Thick, black smoke could be seen billowing from the building of Isochem International, which makes aerosols and industrial cleaners.

A man was taken to hospital for a 'burning sensation' on both arms, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

SCDF officers took 45 minutes to bring the fire under control and conducted a search to make sure that no one was trapped in the building.