While we often see taking long showers as a safe and relaxing part of our day, tragedy struck an elderly man, Mr Omar Abdul Manan, when he fell in the shower in Dec 2020.
Things took a turn for the worse when his wife came to help him, as both were electrocuted due to a heater malfunction.
The same fate befell their 45-year-old son when he found them on the ground and made contact with them.
On Wednesday (9 Mar), the coroner’s court heard that the cause of this tragic incident was the unsafe installation of the water heater.
On 10 Dec 2020, an elderly couple and their son were electrocuted in their flat at Ho Ching Road in Jurong.
All 3 victims – Mr Omar, his wife Mdm Asmah Bujang, and their son Mr Muhamad Ashikin Omar – passed away from the incident.
On Wednesday (9 Mar), it was revealed that the tragic accident happened due to unsafe installation of the water heater, reported The Straits Times (ST).
Investigations reportedly found that a 3-pin plug connected to an electrical socket was used to power the heater.
However, Energy Market Authority’s Senior associate engineer Goh Chin Fong said that the heater should have been connected directly to a double-pole switch instead.
Besides that, the neutral and earth cables in the water heater’s 3-pin plug were found to have fused together.
This caused the current to flow back to a heating tank in the water heater. A metallic hose connected to the tank in turn became energised.
It is believed that 80-year-old Mr Omar was electrocuted when he touched the hose. The same happened to Mdm Asmah when she rushed to help him.
When their son found them later in the afternoon, he apparently touched one of his parents and suffered the same fate.
The elderly couple’s daughter told investigators that they had bought the water heater about 7 years before the incident. However, she was unsure who did the installation.
In his expert testimony to the State Coroner, Mr Goh said the cables in the plug could have fused together because of overloading.
A double-pole switch is safer because the cables are further apart. The risk of them fusing together is thus minimal.
In addition, the electricity leakage from the water heater should have caused a power trip to cut off the flat’s power.
However, investigators found that the residual current circuit breaker (RCCB) did not protect the whole flat’s main electricity circuit. It only protected the utility room.
According to ST, the elderly couple had lived in the flat since the 1970s. At that time, HDB flats did not have RCCBs installed.
HDB installed the circuit breakers from the 1980s and the couple only reportedly got theirs in the early 2000s.
Similarly, flats did not have double-pole switches in the 1970s as water heaters were not prevalent.
On Wednesday (9 Mar), the police also shared that on the day of the incident, Mr Ashikin’s daughter visited the flat at about 2pm when her grandparents were uncontactable.
She opened the main door but could not get into the flat as the front gate was locked.
From the corridor, she could hear the sound of running water from the bathroom. She alerted her father who arrived shortly after.
Mr Ashikin then broke the front gate’s padlock and they entered the flat.
Upon finding his elderly parents in the bathroom, he touched one of them, which the police believe to be Mr Omar. Mr Ashikin then collapsed.
His daughter immediately called her mother who alerted the police to the incident.
Paramedics later arrived at the Ho Ching Road flat and declared the elderly couple dead at the scene.
They also conveyed Mr Ashikin to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital but he succumbed later, ST reported. The police shared that there was no evidence to suggest foul play.
Investigations are ongoing and the State Coroner will be giving his findings next month.
We can’t begin to imagine the depth of the family’s grief after losing 3 of their loved ones at one go.
But we hope that as investigations come to a close, they would be able to find some form of closure.
MS News extends our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the couple and their son. May they rest in peace.
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