SINGAPORE — To try to “cure” herself of a phobia of open flames after watching a movie about firefighting, a 24-year-old former Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer set fire to various spots at her workplace in Tuas Checkpoint on three consecutive days.
Ayu Wandira Sunarno, who held the rank of sergeant, was sentenced to six months in jail on Friday (Dec 6) for her acts of mischief from July 5 to 7 this year.
She set the fires in confined spaces – the toilet and a prayer room near a locker room for female ICA employees – as she did not want others to see her play with fire.
The first time, she started the fire before beginning her night shift duty at about 9.10pm on July 5.
She did this in a prayer room that was connected to a locker room for female employees.
As she was adjusting a knob at the side of the lighter to make a bigger flame, a Muslim prayer attire for women, called a telekung, that was hung on the wall caught fire.
Upon seeing the fire, she left the prayer room and hung out at the locker room, feigning ignorance as a few colleagues were roused by a burning smell and switched off power switches thinking that there might have been a short circuit.
It was only when smoke started billowing out from the prayer room did they discover that the telekung was on fire. They managed to put it out by throwing water on it.
SHE THOUGHT FIRE WOULD EXTINGUISH ITSELF
Hours later, at about 3.30am, Ayu played with fire again after waking up from a one-hour nap on her break during the night shift.
This time, she set fire to another telekung at the prayer room.
She initially turned away from the fire, thinking it would extinguish itself, but the fire only grew larger.
A colleague was sleeping in the prayer room at that time, and Ayu woke her up to help put out the fire. Ayu eventually extinguished it with a floor mat.
The next work day, Ayu was at it again, while taking a break at about 12.30am.
This time, she set fire to a loose thread on a T-shirt that was hanging on a clothes rack in a toilet near the locker room.
When the shirt caught fire, Ayu flushed the lighter down the toilet bowl and ran out of the toilet back into the locker room, where she proceeded to lie down and pretend to be asleep.
The fire was bigger than the previous two, spreading from the shirt to other clothes and towels on the rack, triggering the alarm and sprinkler system, which flooded the toilet.
When other officers asked what happened, she said she had been asleep and did not know that there was a fire or notice anyone entering the toilet.
Ayu only came clean days later, when she was called up to provide a further statement to the police.
FEAR OF LARGE FLAMES
In seeking a lighter sentence for her client, lawyer Sofia Bakhash told the story of how Ayu developed a phobia of open flames, and what had triggered her to play with fire.
She argued that her client falls into the category of offenders with a mental disturbance.
Ms Bakhash said Ayu began fearing open flames while she was a Year Two culinary student at Republic Polytechnic.
During one of her presentations, a skillet she was using caught fire and erupted into flames in front of her. She dropped out of her course shortly after.
In the years after, she steered clear of environments that would trigger her memory of the incident, Ms Bakhash added.
However, a few days prior to her offences, Ayu watched “Only the Brave”, a movie about the harrowing experiences of firefighters battling forest fires.
She thought the movie would not have an effect on her, but she was wrong, the lawyer said.
“She tried to suppress her uneasiness and the memories of the incident at Republic Polytechnic but to no avail,” said Ms Bakhash. “It was while she was getting dressed that she felt a certain resolve to want to finally overcome her fear of open flames.”
Ayu felt that the only way to get over her phobia was to face it directly, she added.
This was why Ayu had repeated her actions, Ms Bakhash said.
“She was under the impression that a repeated act would have ‘cured’ her of her phobia. Once again, this is on the premise that the acts were committed with the intention of self-treatment rather than… causing harm.”
When sentencing Ayu, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim said she should consider herself fortunate that nobody was seriously injured from the fires she had caused.
“The seriousness of this kind of offence cannot be overstated. The potential for harm is so great,” she added.
Ayu could have been sentenced to up to seven years in jail for each of her two charges of mischief by fire.
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