An elderly female victim in her 60s who was injured in a recent fire at Bukit Batok has sadly passed away.
In a tragic end to the case that involved SCDF firefighters encountering a padlocked fire hose reel without water supply, Mdm Goh succumbed to her injuries at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on Monday (9 Dec), after a month’s worth of treatment.
The fire originally occurred at Block 210A along Bukit Batok Street 21 on 9 Nov, originating from a 13th floor HDB unit in the wee hours of the morning.
The victim – identified as Mdm Goh – suffered from serious burns and smoke inhalation, inflicted by the 4am blaze that SCDF firefighters sought to put out.
Although her husband and son were discharged shortly after the incident, and well on their way to recovery, Mdm Goh wasn’t able to heal fully from her injuries.
She passed away a month later at SGH on 9 Dec, reports The Straits Times (ST).
Mr Murali Pillai – Bukit Batok MP – offered his “deepest condolences” in a Facebook post on Tuesday (10 Dec), asking for the family’s “privacy to be respected during this trying period”.
Although Mr Pillai was scheduled for a trip to Germany with President Halimah on a state visit, he decided to fly back to support Mdm Goh’s family in their time of grief, according to ST.
To recap, the Bukit Batok blaze involved SCDF officers who found themselves unable to access the fire hose reels which were padlocked in the cabinet.
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The firefighters then broke the lock to access the hoses, but the water supply had been cut off, severely limiting their ability to put out the fire.
As a result, the family of 3 – including Mdm Goh – was injured in the blaze.
Investigations later uncovered that the lack in water supply was due to incorrect switches for the water pump during a scheduled maintenance — it was mistakenly set to manual instead of auto mode by a vendor’s employee.
A Jurong-Clementi Town Council (JCTC) officer who made the call to padlock the fire hose reel cabinet to prevent “vandalism” was also “redeployed”, with 2 senior officers who acknowledged the decision “penalised”.
We offer our sincere condolences to the victim’s family in the wake of this tragedy.
Hopefully, the town council will make good on their promise to make lasting improvements to the estate’s policies & equipment, to prevent unnecessary loss of life.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
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