Signage for emergency entry, exit at HDB estates
This comes after firefighting vehicle entered wrong point, could not access area during fire
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The Peak @ Toa Payoh, where a fire broke out last month, does not have signs indicating emergency vehicle entry and exit points, as it was built before the Fire Code mandating such signage was updated in 2018.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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Housing Board (HDB) estates that do not have signage indicating designated entry and exit points for emergency vehicles will soon get such signs.
This follows a fire at The Peak @ Toa Payoh last month, where a firefighting vehicle could not access the development as it had inadvertently tried to enter the area via a designated exit point.
The exit point did not have sufficient turning radius and clearance for the vehicle to enter the estate, where an early morning fire at Block 138C, Lorong 1A Toa Payoh on Aug 29 had led to some 300 people being evacuated and three taken to hospital with burn injuries and for smoke inhalation.
The estate does not have signs indicating emergency vehicle entry and exit points, as it was built in 2012 before the Fire Code mandating such signage was updated in 2018. The new requirements were not applied retrospectively.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) yesterday said the other 10 of its 11 vehicles deployed to The Peak had reached the scene without issue via the designated emergency vehicle entrance.
It had been alerted to the fire at 2.55am that day. The fire involved contents in a unit on the 20th floor, and also affected a unit directly above on the 21st floor.
SCDF said it is working with the HDB to put up signage at The Peak and at other HDB developments that similarly have such designated entry and exit points - required under the 2007 Fire Code - but not the signs. The Straits Times has contacted HDB and SCDF for further comment.
SCDF also said that its firefighters had been unable to use a wet riser in Block 138C during the fire as it was not functioning, and it had on Friday ordered Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council to rectify it.
In response, the town council said yesterday that following the fire on Aug 29, its fire protection contractor inspected the wet riser system and found that it was "working fine".
It added that the wet riser was last checked three days before the fire, on Aug 26, and that its contractor's report "showed that the wet riser system was in order".
The town council has engaged an engineer to investigate why the wet riser "had no water" on Aug 29, and findings will be shared subsequently.
SCDF said it is also investigating the cause of the malfunction and will "take further enforcement action against the responsible parties where necessary".
It also clarified that instead of using the wet riser, the fires in both HDB units were "effectively extinguished" using hose reels, adding that "as a general practice, SCDF simultaneously deploys the use of hose reels and water jets (connected to wet risers) in firefighting operations".
Last November, the Jurong-Clementi Town Council was also issued a warning by SCDF after its officers were unable to use the hose reels when a fire broke out at a block in Bukit Batok.
SCDF officers found a few hose reel cabinets in the block locked with padlocks when they arrived at the scene on Nov 1.
After breaking one of the padlocks, they discovered that there was no water supply for the hose reel inside the cabinet. The fire was extinguished using water from SCDF's emergency vehicles.
