Neighbours struggle to persuade elderly man to leave his burning flat
Neighbours pounded on his door for 10 minutes pleading with him to evacuate
He smelt smoke and quickly realised it was coming from a flat above.
The man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Teo, rushed up one storey and found neighbours pounding on the door of a unit where an elderly man stayed.
For the next 10 minutes, they frantically banged on his door, pleading for the man to evacuate his 14th storey flat at Block 806, King George's Avenue, in Lavender.
When he finally opened the door, the man, who is in his 80s, insisted that the situation was under control.
He eventually agreed to leave and joined around 20 other residents on the first storey while officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) put out the fire with a water jet.
The incident occurred at around 6.35pm yesterday, and SCDF said the fire involved contents in the unit and no one was injured.
Recalling the incident, Mr Teo told The New Paper: "I smelt smoke and sensed something was wrong. I was quite alarmed, so I rushed to see what happened."
When the neighbours tried to persuade the elderly man to get out of his flat, Mr Teo said he dismissed their pleas, insisting that his unit was fine and that a newspaper had caught fire.
According to Mr Teo, the elderly man's flat was cluttered with old paper boxes and miscellaneous items such as an old television, plastic bags and newspapers.
A 56-year-old resident who wanted to be known as Madam Xiow, was initially part of the group that was persuading the man to evacuate.
Speaking in Mandarin, she said she was also concerned for her family and neighbours and left to evacuate them first.
Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Shin Min Daily News reported yesterday that closed-circuit television footage suggested it had started in the kitchen.
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