Household fires - from unattended cooking, electrical and gas fires - dropped to 469 from 510 between January and June, the lowest in five years. -- PHOTO: ZAOBAO
FIRES inside homes have dipped, but flames continued to snake around residences in the first half of this year.
Household fires - from unattended cooking, electrical and gas fires - dropped to 469 from 510 between January and June, the lowest in five years.
But the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF)'s half-year report card showed that blazes in rubbish bins, chutes and common areas shot up rose to 1,097, a jump of over 100 cases.
This is an area of growing concern highlighted by operations director Anwar Abdullah at a press conference on Tuesday morning at the SCDF's Ubi headquarters.
Efforts are underway to advise residents to ensure:
Cigarettes are completely stubbed out before they are discarded
charcoal embers are doused with water before they are disposed
flammable substances like paint, oil and kerosene are not thrown into the bins and chutes
Overall, there were 2,545 fire cases in the first six months. This is an increase over the 2,273 incidents last year, although the figure is still lower than the 10-year average.
The rise is largely due to bush fires sparked during prolonged dry spells earlier this year. There were 300 cases - up from about 100 in the first half of last year.
Calls to the SCDF's emergency ambulance service continued to grow as in previous years, rising by 10 per cent to hit over 59,000 calls in the first half year.
The calls are expected to ease when the SCDF parcels out part of its service to private operators.
