Woman dies from injuries suffered in Bukit Batok fire

The woman injured in the Bukit Batok fire on Nov 1 - when firefighters were unable to use hose reels to douse the flames - died in hospital on Monday, said a spokesman for the Singapore General Hospital.

The woman, 60, was evacuated from the 13th-floor unit of Block 210A Bukit Batok Street 21 and had been receiving medical treatment at the hospital for more than a month since the fire.

The woman's husband, 78, and her son, 27, were also hospitalised for burn injuries and smoke inhalation.

The hospital said earlier that the two men were discharged in the weeks following the incident.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Bukit Batok MP Murali Pillai expressed his condolences to the woman's family and asked that their privacy be respected.

Mr Murali, who arrived in Berlin on Monday as part of a delegation accompanying President Halimah Yacob on her five-day state visit to Germany, told The Straits Times that he has cut short the trip.

He said he was flying back to Singapore yesterday to provide support to the family, whom he has been in touch with over the past weeks.

Residents The Straits Times spoke to said the affected family had been living there for about eight years.

A neighbour, retired boat repairman Low Heow Jin, 75, said the woman worked as a karung guni collector and often kept items inside and outside her home.

The affected unit was still boarded up and its door and gate, which were badly charred, were locked when ST visited yesterday.

Another neighbour, who gave his name only as Mr Chan, and who is in his 60s and unemployed, said the father and son had been putting up at a relative's place after they were discharged from hospital.

After the fire broke out at about 4am on Nov 1, Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers had tried to use the hose reels at the block to put out the blaze.

But they found that the hose reel cabinet was locked and, after breaking open the locks, found that the hose reels were dry. They extinguished the fire using water from SCDF's emergency vehicles.

Later that day, SCDF inspected the reels and issued the Jurong-Clementi Town Council (JCTC) with Fire Hazard Abatement Notices for non-compliance with fire safety requirements.

On Nov 15, Mr Murali told residents that he was accountable to them as their elected representative and apologised for the lapses.

On Dec 2, JCTC said investigations showed an employee of J. Keart Alliances, the contractor responsible for maintaining the fire hose reels, had left a pump switch in the wrong mode, resulting in water supply to the hose reels being cut off during the fire.

JCTC said it would issue a Notice of Non-Performance to J. Keart, holding it contractually responsible for failing to ensure the hose reel system was operationally ready.

J. Keart said it has taken appropriate action against its employee, who will be redeployed.

As to why the hose reel cabinets were padlocked, JCTC said one of its property officers had done so as the cabinets were frequently vandalised. He will be redeployed and his two supervisors will be penalised, it added.