A 77-year-old woman has died after a fire broke out in her flat in Bukit Panjang on Monday (28 Sept) afternoon.
Her neighbour, a 62-year-old man, was also sent to the hospital, said the authorities.
Source: Singapura Channel on Facebook
In a Facebook post on Monday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at about 3pm that day.
When firefighters arrived, black smoke was coming out from a unit on the sixth floor of Block 126 Pending Road.
Source: @singaporeincidents.sg on TikTok
The fire involved items in the living room, and was extinguished using one water jet.
About 70 people from the affected block were evacuated by the SCDF and police as a precaution.
During the operation, an unconscious person was found in the living room of the unit and brought out, SCDF said.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was performed, and the resident was conveyed to Woodlands Hospital.
In response to queries from MS News, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said she was a 77-year-old woman, and she was sent to the hospital in an unconscious state.
She subsequently passed away in the hospital.
Source: @singaporeincidents.sg on TikTok
Another resident of the block, who lives in a neighbouring unit, was assessed for smoke inhalation and conveyed to Singapore General Hospital (SGH), SCDF noted.
SPF said he is a 62-year-old man who was sent to SGH in a conscious state.
Police investigations are ongoing. The cause of the fire is also under investigation, SCDF added.
Residents told Lianhe Zaobao that the elderly woman had lived alone in her unit and had limited mobility.
73-year-old Madam Zeng (transliterated from Mandarin) said she had returned home to see thick smoke and crackling sounds from her neighbour’s flat.
She quickly called out to other elderly neighbours to evacuate together with her.
She also heard that the deceased could not flee her flat as she could not find her keys.
However, she had entrusted a neighbour with her spare keys, and this was how firefighters managed to enter her unit.
Source: Singapore Civil Defence Force on Facebook
Other neighbours told Zaobao that the elderly woman kept a lot of newspapers in her flat.
One of them, a 55-year-old housewife who lives on the same floor, said the woman’s next-door neighbour had rushed downstairs to alert SCDF’s Bukit Panjang Fire Post, which is located in the same block.
Source: Google Maps
But the housewife, who lives at the far end of the corridor, could not see if anybody was in the affected unit when she evacuated.
Fourth-floor resident Hou Yuanquan (transliterated from Mandarin) said that while he did not know the elderly woman personally, he had encountered her in the lift.
The last time he saw her was in June, when she was observed to have needed to use a walking stick due to mobility issues.
SCDF noted that the top three causes of fires in homes are unattended cooking, electrical fires and unattended lighted material.
Thus, it strongly advised residents not to leave their cooking unattended and to keep the area clean and grease-free.
Residents should also not overload power sockets, charge devices overnight unattended, or leave lighted materials such as incense sticks or cigarettes unattended. They should instead be fully extinguished before being thrown away.
Also read: 2 residents & 1 firefighter sent to hospital after fire breaks out in Ang Mo Kio flat
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Featured image adapted from Singapura Channel on Facebook and Singapore Civil Defence Force on Facebook.