SINGAPORE - Residents of Block 333 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 were roused from their sleep on Tuesday (June 14) by an early morning blaze at an 11th-floor unit that saw neighbours evacuated and two people taken to hospital.

Mr Alex Khaw Wee Peng, 40, was fast asleep when he heard someone banging on his front door at 4.45am. 

It was his next-door neighbour shouting that her three-room flat was on fire.

When he saw smoke coming out of the unit, he grabbed a pail of water to douse the flames he saw in the neighbour’s master bedroom.

“I tried to put it out but couldn’t as the flames were too strong. I felt it was safer to evacuate,” said Mr Khaw, who runs a delivery business.

He rescued a dog from the unit before helping his wife evacuate their neighbours to the ground floor of the block.

All this happened before Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) firefighters arrived at the scene.

The occupant of the affected unit, whom neighbours say is a woman in her 40s who lives alone, had to be taken to Singapore General Hospital.

Meanwhile, another neighbour who collapsed during the blaze was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. 

Mr Khaw said the woman was able to save one of her pet rabbits from the burning flat. Three others died. 

“She pleaded with my wife and I to save her rabbits but the fire was growing too quickly. It was more important to help our neighbours evacuate,” said Mr Khaw.
SCDF said it was alerted to the fire at around 5am, adding that around 50 people were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, it added.

“Firefighters from Bishan Fire Station extinguished the flames using a water jet and two compressed air foam backpacks,” said SCDF.

Mr Syed Syazwan Syed Sulaiman, 25, who lives on the 11th floor, said he was asleep when he heard neighbours screaming and knocking on doors.

“When I looked outside, the entire corridor was filled with black smoke and bright orange flames were spilling out of my neighbour’s home,” he said.

Mr Syazwan, who is an IT technician, added that he heard loud “bangs” from the unit before police arrived. 

The officers helped his mother, who is in her 50s, and his sister, 19, down the stairs using flashlights.

“I was scared for my family because my mum is not well. But we remained calm and focused on getting out,” he said.

Another neighbour who wanted to be known only as Mr Liang said this is the first flat fire in the 40 years he has lived there.

The 69-year-old, who lives on the same floor, had also attempted to put out the fire using a pail of water.

"We neighbours helped one another and luckily no one is seriously injured,” he said.