SINGAPORE — A man was taken to hospital after police and members of the public helped him escape from a fire through the window of a third-floor public housing unit in Little India on Tuesday (Oct 17) evening. Twenty residents were evacuated.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel arrived after the man had escaped and extinguished the blaze, SCDF said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

The SCDF was alerted to a fire in the unit at Block 662 Buffalo Road at around 8.05pm on Tuesday.

The SCDF post said that prior to its personnel arriving, a man inside a bedroom was freed through a bedroom window facing the corridor and was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

The man's condition was not disclosed.

The SCDF said that the fire involved contents of the living room and kitchen and was extinguished by using two water jets.

"As a result of the fire, the rest of the unit sustained heat and soot damage", it added.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

In a video of the fire posted on TikTok, the inside of the unit could be seen engulfed by flames with smoke billowing out. Onlookers and SCDF personnel and vehicles could also be seen at the scene.

Pictures accompanying the SCDF post also showed the walls of the unit covered in soot, with a blackened dining table and a half-burnt chair seen in the aftermath of the fire.