SINGAPORE – About 60 residents were evacuated and one taken to hospital after a flat in a Tampines Housing Board block caught fire on Monday morning.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post on Monday that it was alerted to a fire at a second-storey HDB flat at Block 147 Tampines Avenue 5 at 8.10am.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which involved the contents of a bedroom, using a water jet and two compressed air foam backpacks.

One person was taken to Singapore General Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Preliminary investigation showed that the fire was of electrical origin, involving a portable air-conditioning unit that was inside the affected bedroom, SCDF said.

SCDF said that before it arrived, several members of the public had attempted to fight the fire using a hose reel.

“SCDF will be reaching out to commend them for their swift action in responding to the emergency,” it added.

A resident living in the affected unit who wanted to be known only as Mrs Zeng told Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News on Monday that when she reached home after dropping her son off at school, she heard her daughter shouting.

“My husband found that the outlet of the portable air-conditioner in my daughter’s room was emitting smoke. It then caught fire,” she said.

Mrs Zeng said her husband tried to put out the fire using water, but it spread rapidly and engulfed the whole bedroom.

“It was very chaotic. I immediately grabbed my daughter and ran outside. Later, two kind neighbours came to help, and one of them saved my husband.”

The neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Prasad, told Shin Min that he ran into the burning unit and saw Mrs Zeng’s husband covering his face with a towel amid the smoke. He then grabbed his hand and ran out.

“At that time, I didn’t think about whether it was dangerous. I just wanted to help,” said the 39-year-old information technology manager.

On April 28, a second-hand air-conditioner caught fire and exploded in an HDB flat in Redhill.

A 14-year-old teenager and a 20-month-old boy from the flat next door were taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The Redhill flat’s resident told The Straits Times that the air-con unit had been purchased by his wife and was installed by an electrician about 1½ years ago.