One dead after fire in Upper Serangoon flat
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About 30 people from the affected block were evacuated by the police and the SCDF as a precaution.
PHOTO: SCDF
- One person died and three others were hospitalised after a fire broke out at a third-floor flat in Lorong Lew Lian, Upper Serangoon.
- The Singapore Civil Defence Force extinguished the fire with a water jet and evacuated about 30 residents as a precaution.
- The cause of the fire is under investigation.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – A 68-year-old man has died after a fire broke out at an HDB flat in Lorong Lew Lian, in Upper Serangoon, on Sept 1.
The police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were alerted to a fire at Block 8 Lorong Lew Lian at about 2.45pm.
During the firefighting operation, an unconscious man was found in the living room of a third-floor unit, and firefighters took him out of the unit and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
He was unconscious when taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he subsequently died.
Three others, women aged between 51 and 94, were conscious when taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Singapore General Hospital. Two of them had been assessed by SCDF responders for breathlessness, and one for smoke inhalation.
Thirty people were evacuated.
The police added that based on preliminary investigations, they do not suspect foul play. Police investigations are ongoing.
The SCDF said in a Facebook post that black smoke was emitting from the unit when its officers arrived.
The fire, which involved contents of the living room, was extinguished using a water jet, SCDF added.
In a Facebook post on Sept 1, Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC MP Seah Kian Peng said he was alerted to a fire at a block in his constituency.
“Very unfortunate and sad that the occupant did not survive the fire. I have known him for many years now and, in fact, last saw him not so long ago,” he added.
“As he has been a resident here for many years and is by nature a friendly person, he will be missed. May he rest in peace.”
Seah also thanked the SCDF for its quick response, adding that work is being done to help the residents affected by the fire.
“Thanks too to neighbours and all for coming together to help those who are impacted by the fire,” he said.
When The Straits Times arrived at about 6.50pm, there were three SCDF vehicles and four police cars at the scene.
Men wearing town council T-shirts loading black boxes into a vehicle at the scene.
ST PHOTO: FATIMAH MUJIBAH
A resident living on the 12th floor of the block, who gave her name as Zoki, said: “I smelled gas burning, and I looked out of the window and saw thick black smoke.
“I knew it must’ve been really bad if the smoke looked like that (from up here).”
The 28-year-old part-time warehouse assistant said she always noticed that a unit on the third floor had plenty of clutter outside.
“There would be all sorts of things. Cages, cabinets, everything,” she said.
A neighbour on the fifth floor, who wanted to be known only as Ang, told ST that she had always advised the victim to discard some of his belongings that were outside his unit.
“We weren’t close, but I would tell him, ‘Better to throw away in case there are emergencies and people need to run.’ He said he couldn’t because he ‘sayang’ (loves) a lot of his items,” the 58-year-old homemaker said.
Student Derrly Sherwin, who lives on same floor as the victim, said he was woken up when his mother yelled for him to evacuate.
The 17-year-old ran down with his mother and brother. They waited downstairs for almost two hours.
“The man was in his 60s and he had a daughter in her 30s living with him. He would offer me drinks and was very nice,” he said, referring to the flat’s occupants.
Another resident, who lives on the sixth floor, said he was about 10 minutes away from home when his wife called in a panic.
The man, who wanted to be known only as Zaf, said: “I have a newborn son who’s almost one month old and a four-year-old daughter. I immediately rushed back and ran up to my unit even though officers told me I couldn’t.”
When he got home, his daughter was bawling. She was unable to breathe because of the smoke.
“I didn’t care about anything. I could only think of my wife and kids,” the 28-year-old said.
“We got out of the unit and sat outside where we have a fan. We gave my daughter lots of water and calmed her down.”
Zaf, who is a former fireman, said his wife told him she heard a man from the third floor shouting “Tolong, tolong!” (“Help, help!”) when the fire started.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. This marks the fifth death from a residential fire since July 28.