Residents evacuated after fire at Serangoon unit
A fire at a Serangoon Central flat resulted in the evacuation of 30 residents of the Housing Board block on Tuesday.
The fire, which happened around 3.30pm, started in a sixth-storey flat of Block 204 Serangoon Central. The fire began in a bedroom.
Shards from the unit's broken windows fell and smashed two car windshields parked below the block, residents told The New Paper yesterday.
One resident, who wanted to be known only as Mr Cheong, said: "I heard explosions and looked out of my window and saw broken glass falling and damaging my car windscreen."
According to Chinese evening daily Shin Min Daily News, three of the unit's six occupants were home - a grandmother, 80, and her three young grandchildren who managed to evacuate before the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived.
An SCDF spokesman said there were no casualties.
A spokesman for the Braddell Heights Zone D Residents' Committee (RC) told TNP the family of six are staying at a temporary shelter in Braddell Heights arranged by the Braddell Heights Zone D RC and the HDB.
SCDF said it evacuated residents from the sixth and seventh storeys.
A resident who wanted to be known only as Madam Wong said she rushed home from work after learning of the fire from a neighbour. The florist lives on the seventh storey, directly above the burning unit.
"When I arrived, I pleaded with the firefighters to look for my dog, and when they found him, he had already breathed in too much smoke and was weak and breathless, so I took him to a vet," she told Shin Min.
Her kitchen toilet's light and door were melted by the heat, and her flat was covered in soot.
"The toilets were just renovated last year and now they are destroyed. The air-conditioner in two of the rooms and the water heater were also damaged," said Madam Wong.
The Braddell Heights spokesman said the RC is assisting the affected families.
"We are prepared to support them in way they need," he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now