She Ignores Fire Hazard Warning - And Pays With Her Life

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Singapore
11-6-2006

Despite lit joss-stick alert, elderly woman dies in flat crammed with clothes, clutter
By Tanya Fong

AN ELDERLY woman was killed when her kitchen caught fire, shortly after she ignored her neighbour's warning against putting lit joss sticks in front of a statue of a deity wrapped in plastic.

The neighbour, Madam Tan Gui Meng, 65, said she chided the woman for doing so at about 5.20 yesterday morning.

'I told her it was very dangerous and reminded her of the fire two years ago. She got upset, went back into her flat and slammed the door,' Madam Tan said in Mandarin.

The elderly woman and her partner, Mr Lau Kim Seng, 70, had left their burning joss sticks unattended before. This led to their Circuit Road flat in Block 69 catching fire two years ago.

About two hours later, Madam Tan returned to her sixth-floor flat after her morning walk and saw black smoke billowing from her neighbour's kitchen window.

She ran two floors down and banged on the couple's door, but no one responded.

Mr Oi In Teck, 42, a construction supervisor who lives directly above the burning flat, also noticed the smoke.

He too bolted out of his flat and tried to alert the couple. He and another male neighbour banged their fists on the door but to no avail.

'I was afraid it would be too late to save my wife if the fire got bigger, so I ran back upstairs and woke her up,' Mr Oi said in Mandarin.

'We grabbed our wallets and important documents and left our flat.' Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers, who received a call for help at 7.35am, arrived at the scene within four minutes.

They broke through the door and were greeted by thick smoke. Flames had engulfed the kitchen of the fourth-floor flat.

They had to first find their way around bags of clothes, plastic containers, furniture and religious artefacts cluttering the living room. One of the bedrooms in the two-bedroom flat was almost filled to the ceiling with things.

They found Mr Lau, who was conscious, lying on the living room floor. His partner, who was in her 70s, was found dead near the kitchen windows. Her upper torso was completely charred, and she was lying on her side on the floor.

Known to neighbours only as Mr Lau's partner, she cannot be named until her identity has been confirmed by her next-of-kin. More than 50 residents in the block ran out of their flats after the blaze started. SCDF officers took six minutes to put out the fire, which was confined to the kitchen.

Mr Lau was taken to Singapore General Hospital, where he was treated for second-degree burns.

Mr Oi, his neighbour, said: 'The last fire in their flat happened two years ago at the same time - on the 15th day of the sixth lunar month.'

The last fire destroyed Mr Oi's sink and cracked all his kitchen windows when the flames leapt upwards.

Madam Tan said: 'We've reminded them many times about the last fire, hoping they would be more careful when they light their joss sticks, or at least clear some stuff in their flat. But it's hard because it's their flat, and they can always tell us it's none of our business.'

The couple were known to be devout Taoists. They worked as part-time cleaners at a Buddhist lodge in Geylang.

Of the 3,056 residential fires attended to by the SCDF last year, 358 involved furniture, clothing, mattresses, religious altars and door mats.

The SCDF is still investigating the cause of yesterday's fire.


'I told her it was very dangerous and reminded her of the fire two years ago. She got upset, went back into her flat and slammed the door.' -- MADAM TAN GUI MENG on her elderly neighbour whose body (above) was found near the flat's kitchen windows. -- LAU FOOK KONG

Labels: Old News