A male resident and a baby girl were taken to hospital after a fire, suspected to have been caused by a personal mobility device (PMD), broke out in his Bukit Batok flat yesterday morning.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post that its officers used a water jet to extinguish the fire, which involved the contents of a bedroom.
SCDF responded to the fire at about 10.40am in a Housing Board flat on the fifth floor of Block 416 Bukit Batok West Avenue 4. A male occupant of the flat and a baby from a sixth-floor unit were taken to Singapore General Hospital and KK Women's and Children's Hospital, respectively, for smoke inhalation.
According to Chinese evening newspaper Shin Min Daily News, a 24-year-old man who lives in the block said his nephew was the male occupant in the unit.
The nephew was the only person at home. His mother was at a polyclinic, and his brother was in school. After he was done showering, he saw smoke in the flat. The nephew then rushed out to look for his uncle for help. When they returned to the flat, the nephew said that a PMD was likely being charged in the unit.
It is unclear if the PMD involved was UL2272-certified. The UL2272 standard is a set of safety requirements covering the electrical drive train system of PMDs, including the battery system. E-scooter owners are required by law to have their devices UL2272-certified by July 1 next year.
SCDF said preliminary investigations showed that the source of the fire was electrical in origin and was due to a PMD that was charging at the time. It encouraged all owners of non-UL2272-certified PMDs to dispose of their devices at designated points as soon as possible.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is facilitating this process at 181 spots across the island at no cost to e-scooter owners. This will last for six months from Sept 23 to March 31, with those who do so before Nov 30 eligible for a $100 incentive.
In the first half of this year, there were 49 fires related to PMDs, or an average of about two a week.
