Elderly man in his 80s rescued after fire in King George's Avenue flat

A man in his 80s was rescued after a fire at King George's Avenue. The man, who was the owner of the unit that caught fire, was assisting in investigations at the void deck. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS
A man in his 80s was rescued after a fire at King George's Avenue. The unit that caught fire contained a large amount of rubbish. PHOTO: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS

SINGAPORE - An elderly man in his 80s was rescued from his flat on Wednesday (June 20) after a fire broke out in his home.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) told The Straits Times that it responded to the fire, which was on the 14th storey of Block 806 King George's Avenue, at 6.35pm.

The fire was extinguished using a water jet, and there were no reported injuries, SCDF said.

An elderly witness who declined to be named told Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News on Thursday that she had asked the man to leave the house after discovering the fire, but the man refused and told her that it was just a small issue.

Shin Min reported that the rooms in the house were filled with an assortment of objects and boxes.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

In May, 59-year-old Sim Buay Piak died after a fire broke out in his 11th-storey flat in Tampines. It was reported then that he was known to have hoarded numerous items in his three-room Housing Board flat for several years.

In another case, a coroner's court heard in April last year that a home fire which killed an elderly woman in October 2016 was most likely caused by lighted joss sticks and candles near her massive collection of cardboard and other flammable materials.

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