The heat from the blaze was so intense it warped the flat's grille gate.
Ms Siti Zakariah with her 9-month-old daughter (in arms) and niece outside her flat. --Picture: Joyce Lim
ELECTRIC NEWS
REDHILL BLAZEYoung children trapped as neighbours sramble to free family
They fight fire with pails of water, but...
By Joyce Lim
January 13, 2008
AS an HDB corridor fire swept into their three-room flat in the early hours of Sunday morning, a Redhill family may have an explosion to thank for saving their lives.
The sudden blast roused the family of seven from deep sleep in the 11th-storey flat at Block 55, Lengkok Bahru around 2am.
They jumped out of bed to find a fire engulfing the front of their flat, blocking their only escape route.
The scorching heat warped the flat's grille gate and thick black smoke quickly filled the flat.
Fortunately for the family, which included three toddlers, the explosion also woke up their neighbours, who rushed to their aid and helped put out the blaze.
The fire, which may have been started deliberately, had caused a mini-freezer left outside on the corridor to explode.
Luckily, a gas cylinder, which was also outside the flat, did not explode. The empty tank had been left outside by the family.
Ms Siti Zakariah, 19, recalled: 'I was woken up by the explosion. I grabbed my baby and rushed out of my bedroom.
'I saw that my elder brother and sister were already in the kitchen, trying to fill pails and pots with water.'
Ms Siti's elder sister, Ms Yan, was sleeping inside the room next to the corridor with her 6-month-old baby and 2-year-old child.
SMOKE AND FLAMES
The 26-year-old operations supervisor said: 'I woke up and saw thick smoke and fire coming into the flat. I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a pot and filled it with water.
'I threw the water at the fire. It didn't help as the fire was too strong. I ran back to my room, grabbed my two children and called the police on my handphone.'
Ms Siti, who is currently unemployed, added: 'Our neighbours were outside our flat, working hard at putting out the fire. Luckily, some of them had fire extinguishers.
'They were shouting our names, calling us to get out of the flat.'
Housewife Syafiqah Garnell, 28, who lives three units away from MsSiti, said: 'I went out and saw that my husband was trying to put out the fire with an extinguisher.
'Many people had come out of their homes to watch and they were shouting, 'Fire! Fire! Burn! Burn!'
Thanks to the quick reaction of the block's residents, the drama was over in 15 minutes.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman told The New Paper that they received a call at 2.31 am and firefighters arrived at the scene in five minutes.
A Rhino and a fire engine were activated.
The spokesman said: 'When we arrived, the fire had been put out by members of the public.
'The corridor walls, window frames and part of the unit were blackened.'
The police received a call around the same time.
No one was injured, police spokesman Assistant Superintendent Stanley Norbert said.
The police are investigating the cause of the fire, he added.
Ms Siti said firefighters had found shattered glass from a bottle which she believed could have contained a inflammable liquid.
'After the incident, my neighbours told me that they had seen two men loitering suspiciously outside my flat.
SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS
'And after the explosion, another neighbour, who was sitting outside a closed coffeeshop below the block, saw two men fleeing on a motorbike.'
Mr Lashman Singh, 34, a forklift operator, was watching a movie on TV when he heard the explosion and shattering glass.
He immediately ran out to help.
'I soaked my towel with water and threw it at the fire. Even our neighbours living on the second storey rushed upstairs to help put out the fire.'
The Zakariah family is grateful for their neighbours' help.
Ms Siti said: 'Besides the freezer, we also had an empty gas cylinder outside the flat.
Fortunately, it was empty and did not explode.'
Ms Yan said: 'Our neighbours have been very supportive. We know that they are curious about the cause of the fire and they have not blamed us.
'We suspect that one of my brothers may have offended some people who could be behind the fire.'
Ms Siti has seven siblings. Her parents are divorced.
She lives in the flat with her daughter, Ms Yan and her children, two other brothers, and her mother.
Her mother is still unaware of the incident as she is on holiday in Australia.
Ms Siti said: 'We don't intend to tell my mother as we want her to continue to enjoy her holiday. We will tell her when she gets home next week.'
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