SINGAPORE – Some 35 people evacuated from a Housing Board block in the Lavender area after a fire, believed to be caused by a charging e-bike battery, broke out in a flat on Dec 11.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the blaze at Block 463 Crawford Lane at about 11.50pm.
Firefighters from Kallang Fire Station arrived to see black smoke billowing out of a unit on the 15th floor, said the SCDF in its Facebook post on Dec 12.
SCDF said it made a forced entry into the flat, which had no occupants at the time.
The fire, in the living room, was extinguished with a water jet.
About 35 residents from the affected block had evacuated before SCDF officers arrived, and no injuries were reported.
Preliminary investigations found that the fire had originated from a battery pack of a power-assisted bicycle that was being charged in the living room.
On Dec 12, the morning after the fire, a reporter from Shin Min Daily News visited the three-room flat that caught fire and spoke to one of the tenants, who wanted to be known only as Ms Chen.
Ms Chen, who works at a nightclub, said she came to Singapore from China about half a month ago, the Chinese-language evening newspaper reported.
She was shocked when she found out about the fire after she arrived home from work at about 3am, she said, adding that the water and power supply to the flat had been cut off as well.
She said that she does not have many friends in Singapore and cannot afford to stay at a hotel, so she will probably continue to live in the burnt flat.
SCDF reminded users of personal mobility devices or power-assisted bicycles not to charge the devices’ batteries for an extended period of time, and not to buy or use non-original batteries.
There were 27 fires involving such devices in the first half of 2023, an increase from 22 fires during the same period in 2022, SCDF’s mid-year report released in August showed.
In May, three people were hospitalised after a fire broke out in a Sengkang flat where a personal mobility device had been left charging in the living room.
Source : THE STRAITS TIMES
