5 taken to hospital, dozens evacuated, after fire breaks out in Bukit Merah View HDB flat

SINGAPORE — Five people were taken to the Singapore General Hospital on Wednesday (March 30) after a fire broke out in a one-room Housing and Development Board unit in Bukit Merah.

In a Facebook post, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire at Block 121 Bukit Merah View at about 11.45am.

When SCDF emergency responders arrived, the fire was already "raging in the living-room-cum-bedroom” of the second-floor flat.

Firefighters from Alexandra Fire Station and Central Fire Station wore breathing apparatus sets and manoeuvred their way into the heavily smoke-filled unit, where they extinguished the fire using a water jet.

SCDF said that the unit was affected by heat and smoke damage.

It added that two people from the affected unit had self-evacuated prior to the arrival of SCDF officers.

“In addition, about 35 people from the affected block were subsequently evacuated by police and SCDF.

“A person sustained burn injuries while another four persons suffered from smoke inhalation. SCDF conveyed them to Singapore General Hospital,” SCDF said.

In photos posted by SCDF on Facebook, a person can be seen on a stretcher being attended to by paramedics. Another photo showed the broken window of the affected unit, with debris strewn on the block's ground floor as smoke blackened parts of the exterior wall.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, SCDF said.