Fatal Bukit Batok fire: Technician fined S$2,700 for hiding negligent act affecting hose reels that delayed firefighters

SINGAPORE — Firefighting efforts at a Bukit Batok public housing block in 2019 were delayed partly because a technician negligently left a switch in the wrong mode during a maintenance check, which stopped water from flowing through hose reels, a court heard on Friday (Sept 19).

When Malaiyappan Mayalagu realised his mistake, he went to a pump room alone several hours after the blaze and re-activated the water supply.

Even when his bosses confronted him with closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, he continued insisting that he never went to the pump room. He confessed only two weeks later.

A resident in her 60s ultimately died from the fire, succumbing to smoke inhalation injuries after more than a month of treatment at the Singapore General Hospital.

On Friday, Malaiyappan, a 51-year-old India national, was fined S$2,700.

He pleaded guilty to one charge each of committing a negligent act that endangered human life and getting rid of evidence of an offence to screen himself from legal punishment. He was fined S$1,500 for the first offence and S$1,200 for the other.

FIRE HOSE REEL CABINETS WERE PADLOCKED

The fire happened in the wee hours of Nov 1, 2019 at Block 210A Bukit Batok Street 21.

When several residents tried to access the fire hose reel cabinets on the 13th floor of the Housing and Development Board block, where the blaze was, they discovered that it had been padlocked to prevent vandalism.

One resident eventually broke the cabinets' glass panel but was still unable to access the hose.

Police officers soon arrived and evacuated 70 residents.

Around 4.40am, Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers arrived and began its firefighting and rescue operations.

When they turned on the valve of the fire hose, the hose reel did not dispense any water.

More SCDF firefighters then arrived and set up two hose line jets, using water from the dry riser to put out the fire, which was raging in a 13th-floor flat and along the common corridor.

While waiting for the hose line jets to be sufficiently pressurised, a firefighter tried to use the fire hose reels again, cutting the padlocks and trying to turn on the valve.

This failed and he had to turn back to the hose line jets, which were fully charged and pressurised at that point.

The fire was extinguished at around 5.15am.

An 81-year-old man and his 30-year-old son managed to climb out of the kitchen window of the flat that was on fire. The victim, who was the older man’s wife, collapsed in the kitchen toilet.

SCDF officers managed to rescue the trio, but initially found it hard to get into the flat because the interior and exterior were heavily cluttered with items.

SWITCH WAS ON 'MANUAL' MODE

SCDF deemed the lack of water running through the fire hose reels to be a fire hazard and issued an abatement notice to Jurong-Clementi Town Council.

The authorities discovered that the water pump selector switch, located in the pump room on the rooftop of the block, was set to “manual” instead of “auto”.

This happened during a maintenance check conducted by Malaiyappan on Oct 14, 2019. He had run a test to determine if the pump worked on both modes, then failed to turn the switch back to “auto”.

When set on “manual” mode, someone has to physically press a button in the pump room in order for the fire hose reels to work.

SCDF told the town council about the problem with the fire hose reel. Malaiyappan and his colleagues from J Keart Alliances (JKeart) were then despatched to check the functionality of the hose reels.

JKeart was the contractor responsible for maintaining the hose reels.

Malaiyappan's colleagues exited the lift on the block’s 13th floor to check the hose reels, while Malaiyappan snuck away to the rooftop pump room on the 16th floor.

He then set the switch back to “auto” mode. He did not tell anyone about this, leading to his colleagues reporting that the fire hose reels were in good working condition.

The JKeart technicians and their employer then had a meeting with the town council on Nov 9, 2019. Malaiyappan insisted that he did not enter the pump room.

The town council reviewed CCTV footage and saw that Malaiyappan had gone to the rooftop and returned 10 minutes later.

They showed the footage to a JKeart director, who confronted Malaiyappan with screenshots. Despite this, the technician maintained that he did not go to the pump room.

On Nov 17, 2019, the director, along with a managing director and maintenance manager from JKeart, took Malaiyappan to the housing block to speak to him.

He admitted to his offences after they told him that JKeart had treated him well and warned him not to lie to them.

ASKED FOR FORGIVENESS

On Friday, District Judge Sharmila Sripathy found that Malaiyappan did not deserve jail time even though his negligent act was one of several factors that delayed rescue efforts by several minutes.

Malaiyappan told the court through an interpreter that he sought the court’s forgiveness for what he did, and asked the judge to exercise leniency in imposing the sentence.

He had earlier indicated that his boss would pay the fine for him.

For committing a negligent act that endangered human life, he could have been jailed for up to three months or fined.

For getting rid of evidence of an offence to screen himself from legal punishment, he could have been given up to one-fourth of the jail term for committing a negligent act.