On 25 May 1961, a fire erupted in a kampung in Bukit Ho Swee, which left 16,000 people temporarily homeless and claimed four lives.
Although the emergency response was swift, the inferno scorched the settlement, leaving a school, shops, factories, and many homes in a pile of ashes.
Source: Blogspot
It is considered one of the worst fires in Singapore’s history.
Yet despite that, the true cause of the inferno remains disputed, with some conspiracy theorists believing that the fire was a deliberate attempt to relocate stubborn kampung residents.
One prominent Singaporean historian even called it the fire that transformed “squatters” into “citizens” in his book — which describes a very different Singapore than the one you would recognise today.
After World War II, Bukit Ho Swee saw a residential boom, from housing 2,772 people in 1948 to 19,017 people in 1957.
Source: Ministry of National Development (MND)
Also referred to as “city-fringe squatter settlements”, structures in kampung settlements were typically made of wooden walls and a zinc roof. The buildings were also often tightly packed.
Combined with heat waves and dry weather, this made the settlements prone to catching fires.
In fact, prior to the 1961 blaze, the area around Bukit Ho Swee suffered two other massive fires — one on 8 August 1934 and another on 13 February 1959.
These fires burned down 500 and 12,000 homes, respectively.
Source: NUS Libraries
To make matters worse, according to historian and author Loh Kah Seng, many fires that broke out in the settlement often did so due to ordinary everyday acts.
This included improper waste disposal, especially cigarettes, rituals such as joss paper burning, cooking, and even celebrations.
All these conditions combined to make the area one large fire hazard.
Then, in 1961, those conditions resulted in one of the biggest, if not the biggest, fires in all of Singaporean history.
“Fire!” a man exclaimed at around 3pm on 25 May as he woke from his afternoon nap.
Rushing out of his home, he saw the beginnings of what would become an inferno, as the fire engulfed a house behind King Theatre in Kampong Tiong Bahru.
A deadly combination of strong winds meant the fire spread quickly.
As though that was not bad enough, a recent drought had dried out the attap roofs, making them highly flammable.
Source: Blogspot
Within ten minutes, the entire Tiong Bahru hill was set ablaze.
Eventually, the winds would blow the flames into the neighbouring kampung Bukit Ho Swee.
Source: Blogspot
Firefighters received the alert at around 3.15pm and had to scramble their workers, who were mostly Malay Muslims, back as it was the Hari Raya holiday.
However, by the time they arrived, the challenge of controlling the growing blaze was monumental.
When they found the water pressure way too weak to tame the growing blaze, the firefighters tried to close off the mains in other areas.
However, this was not as effective as they had hoped.
Source: National Museum of Singapore on Facebook
This was only made worse by the fact that the settlements were difficult to navigate.
Firefighters recalled having to join multiple hoses to zigzag through the settlements to get to the fire, which only made their water pressure problem worse.
Source: Roots.sg
The fire was only extinguished at 10pm — hours after it was first reported.
While authorities conducted investigations into the fire, theories and witness accounts started to surface — with some believing that it started as an act of arson.
According to Nanyang Siang Pau, a middle-aged man claimed that he saw a young man hurl several flaming torches onto the roof of the kampung houses, which set them ablaze.
Several other residents also told similar stories.
On 9 June 1961, police arrested a suspect connected to the fire, but he was released due to a lack of evidence.
Other speculated causes include a gang fight gone wrong and a fire erupting from a cooking stove.
However, authorities have not published an official report that details the cause of the fire.
The lack of closure has only fueled conspiracy theorists.
A sinister theory that surfaced suggests that the authorities, who had long pushed for the kampung residents to be cleared out, were behind the fire.
To support their claims, people alleged that the fire very conveniently took place during a holiday.
As such, many of the men were home to usher their families to safety, ensuring a low casualty count.
A Bukit Ho Swee resident even alleged that the fire engines were only there to obstruct traffic and did not even attempt to fight the fire.
“The government was there but didn’t fight the fire but just stood there,” he said.
“The government wanted to evict the people, so why fight the fire?”
Source: Blogspot
Mainly, though, some were suspicious about the speed at which the government built new homes for those affected.
While these rumours were mostly baseless, the authorities indeed responded swiftly to the tragedy — by not only building new housing, but also ones that are much more fire resistant.
Following the fire, the government declared a state of emergency.
They then turned schools along Kim Seng Road into temporary shelters for the thousands of residents who lost their homes.
Source: Roots.sg
While they were now temporarily housed, the damage to their livelihoods was staggering.
The fire had destroyed homes, but it also destroyed places where people worked.
These included a school, a coffee mill, two oil mills, two junk shops, two tyre shops, three timber yards, and three workshops.
Furthermore, livestock raised by the kampung residents also died in the fire.
The Social Welfare Department, with the assistance of many organisations including Singapore General Hospital and the Red Cross, was able to provide much-needed relief and rehabilitation for the victims.
A national relief fund was also established, garnering a total of S$1,586,422.16.
Some of the funds were even used to help victims purchase new homes.
One day after the fire, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew announced plans to relocate the victims into flats in Queenstown, Tiong Bahru, St Michael’s Estate, MacPherson, and Kallang.
He even said some would be relocated into flats under construction at Bukit Ho Swee itself.
The government then seized the burnt-down land and demolished the unauthorised structures at the fire site.
Source: Blogspot
By February the following year, the government had successfully rehomed all the victims of the fire.
By 1967, six years after the fire, the Housing & Development Board (HDB) built 12,562 flats on the land they acquired as a result of the fire.
A 1970 census revealed that the majority of the people living in the newly built flats were victims of the fire.
Source: Roots.sg
For Singapore, this tragedy could also be seen as a huge boon.
Reconstruction efforts turned what was once a settlement of the past into a safe, and modern estate for residents.
However, it is important to remember that 16,000 people still lost their homes, four people lost their lives, and a community lost its old way of life forever.
“To this day, memories of the attap houses and the friendly people still make me happy,” a survivor said.
“It was quite beautiful and sticks in my mind.”
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Featured image adapted from National Museum of Singapore on Facebook and Blogspot.