Burn down whole block of HDB Flat Bestest!
PMD fire at Boon Lay void deck put out by residents; second blaze in block in two weeks
PUBLISHED
2 HOURS AGO
Malavika Menon
SINGAPORE - A personal mobility device (PMD) left charging at the void deck caused a fire at Block 191 Boon Lay Drive on Saturday (July 27), barely two weeks after a blaze engulfed a flat at the same block.
The fire was put out by residents who threw buckets of water to control the flames.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it responded to the fire at about 12.05pm on Saturday.
"About 20 people were evacuated from the block and there were no reported injuries", SCDF said.
Mr Patrick Tay, an MP for West Coast GRC, praised the efforts of the residents in a Facebook post on Saturday.
He said no residential units were affected by the fire.
Facebook user Garnell Glenn Bernard, one of the residents who put out the fire, posted about the incident, saying the residents' efforts were in line with Singapore's "kampong spirit".
He said he hoped the person responsible for the fire would be "dealt with accordingly".
Chinese paper Shin Min Daily News reported that a 36-year-old factory worker who gave her name as Amani admitted her 17-year-old eldest son was the owner of the PMD.
Mdm Amani told Shin Min that she had not been able to pay the household electricity bill and when her son discovered the electrical socket at the block’s void deck was not locked, he went downstairs to charge the PMD.
The report added that Mdm Amani, a single mother, estimated she has to pay the town council $3,000 for the electrical cable repair work and repainting of walls.
But she said she may have to seek help from the MP as she is facing financial difficulties.
On July 15, six people were injured and about 100 residents were evacuated after a fire broke out in a fourth-floor unit of the block.
SCDF is investigating the cause of the blaze that started on a mattress in the rental flat's bedroom at around 10pm. The family who had been staying there said there were no electrical devices charging in the bedroom at the time.
Fires linked to PMDs and power-assisted bicycles (PABs) have been on an upward trend in recent years.
According to SCDF, 31 people were injured in 36 residential fires involving PMDs and PABs were reported in the first half of this year, up from 11 injured out of 23 such fires in the same period last year.
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Disclosing these figures in a Facebook post on Friday, SCDF added that 54 reported fires - including non-residential fires - involved these devices between January to last month, more than double last year's figure of 24 in the same period.
Most of these fires involved lithium ion batteries, and occurred during charging or shortly after charging, said SCDF.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Tuesday that it was reviewing whether to bring forward a ban on all PMDs which do not have a specific safety certification known as the UL227
The UL2272 certification process looks at the fire and electrical safety of PMDs.
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