DOVER ROAD FIRE - Requests to clear furniture were ignored

Dec 11, 2007
By Carolyn Quek

FRUSTRATED residents of a block of HDB flats on Dover Road complained for a week about a pile of discarded furniture outside the building's third-floor lifts.

But their pleas fell on deaf ears. That was until early Sunday morning when the pile went up in flames, a blaze police have classified as mischief.

'The furniture had been lying there for so many days, yet no one came to clear it,' said Mr Khoo Pek Tee, 68, a retired driver.

The fire, which broke out at about 12.20am, roused many residents of the block, which contained 182 two-room rental flats.

Many on the third floor - especially the units near the heart of the blaze - were trapped in their homes by the flames and thick smoke, which blanketed the corridor.

Five residents had to be taken to the National University Hospital for smoke inhalation, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

One of them was Madam Zainub Ibrahim whose flat was closest to the lift landing.

The 44-year-old hotel chambermaid told The Straits Times that she was asleep in the living room with her 10-year-old daughter when she heard people shouting.

But the flames were too intense for mother and daughter to flee by the main door. They escaped by climbing down a ladder placed against their kitchen window by firefighters.

'It was very hot, I could not breathe,' Madam Zainub recalled. SCDF paramedics took her to the hospital that night but she left at 8am yesterday even though doctors had asked her to stay.

Her health, it seemed, was not as much of a concern as cleaning up the damage the fire had caused. It destroyed her curtains and corridor window while the smoke blackened the walls.

Two television sets and a DVD player in the living room were also damaged.

A West Coast-Ayer Rajah Town Council spokesman said the town council would 'expedite' repairs to common areas of the block.

She said residents are reminded periodically to not dump their unwanted items in the common areas. Cleaning contractors are also told to remove garbage during their daily rounds.

There is also a free service to remove bulky household trash, she said.

All this did not satisfy Madam Zainub's 21-year-old son Sufiyan Jumali, who was not at home at the time of the incident.

He said he was upset and disappointed, especially because he had asked a cleaner to clear the heap of cupboards, cabinets and mattresses last week.

'A fireman asked me if the space at the lift landing was a room because of the amount of furniture there,' he said.

Mr Khoo added: 'I had been meaning to complain about the discarded furniture to the authorities, but I kept putting it off. Then the fire happened.'

According to the SCDF, 205 fires were set deliberately in the first half of this year, a slight decline from 2006.

Fires in residential buildings have also fallen by 27 cases, to 1,613, in the first half of this year.
However, fires involving rubbish - including Sunday's - have increased. They formed the bulk of residential fires.

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings.