Unemployed single mother of three loses home and belongings to fire

SINGAPORE — Single mother of three Tanti Yani Zaini, 33, lost her job as a zone coordinator for an information technology company in early March, just as the Covid-19 pandemic began to escalate in Singapore. 

The stress of having no income and having to care for her three young children, who are doing home-based learning, had been weighing her down. 

Things got worse on Friday (April 10) when her Housing and Development Board flat in Sengkang caught fire, burning everything in her two bedrooms and toilets. 

“I was just about to take a shower when I heard my brother shout, ‘Fire! Fire in the master bedroom!’ The first thing that came to my mind was my son. He had just taken a shower and was changing in the room,” said Ms Tanti, who was in the master bedroom bathroom and had just undressed.

Ms Tanti wrapped herself in a towel and flung the bathroom door open. 

By then, her brother, who was visiting, had carried her five-year-old son, who was still undressed, out of the master bedroom. 

The first thing Ms Tanti saw was her teddy bear — which she described to be the “same size as my five-year-old son” — in flames. 

“The fire was quickly spreading to the rest of the room,” she said. 

While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, Ms Tanti suspects that it started from a faulty electrical point next to the teddy bear.

Her brother’s girlfriend, Ms Qira Yong, 23, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the children when the fire broke out, quickly left the flat on the 10th floor with Ms Tanti’s eight-year-old twin daughters. Ms Yong called the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) for help. 

Ms Tanti said: “I could not leave my house with just my towel on. Luckily, I remembered I had dry clothes at my service yard. I quickly got dressed, grabbed some of my son’s clothes and dressed him. By then, we started seeing black smoke." 

She added that neighbours had taken notice of the situation and approached her flat. 

One of her neighbours asked her if she had turned off the gas supply in her kitchen and quickly helped her to do so. 

From the master bedroom, the fire spread to the attached bathroom, the common bathroom, and the other bedroom in the three-room flat. All that is left of their belongings are black piles of soot and dust.

“My important documents are gone; my kids’, too. What we are left with is basically nothing,” she said.

The fire was extinguished in less than 10 minutes, and Ms Tanti’s television set and dining table were among the few items spared.

The town council offered Ms Tanti temporary accommodation in a one-bedroom flat in Jalan Kayu at no cost for two months. She will move in on Tuesday. 

While the residents’ committee said that it would provide her with tables and chairs, the rest of the house would be unfurnished.

Ms Tanti was also told that she would have to bear the cost of renovations for her damaged flat, because her insurance plan covers only the structure of the apartment and not its contents.

Her family and closest friends heard what happened to her and one of them shared it on Facebook. Ms Yong also put up a post on Instagram asking members of the public to donate in whatever way they could to help the single mother. 

Offers of donations have poured in since. 

What’s left of Ms Tanti’s master bedroom window after the fire. Photo: Qira Yong

Ms Yong said: “The post went viral. People were sharing and reposting it. We received offers for mattresses, furniture, bedsheets, clothes, food and home appliances. We have even received almost S$20,000 in funds donated through (fund transfer service) PayNow.”

She added that some items were left outside the damaged flat, while others willingly delivered them to the family's temporary home in Jalan Kayu.

Even contractors have reached out to assure Ms Tanti that they are willing to renovate her flat at no cost.

“So many people reached out. It got so overwhelming that I had to start rejecting these offers. I asked them to just pray for us. That is more than enough,” said Ms Yong, who works in the food-and-beverage industry.

Dr Lam Pin Min, Member of Parliament for Sengkang West who visited her flat, wrote on Facebook: “I visited the site together with some grassroots leaders and we were able to provide assistance and support to the affected family.

"I was heartened to see the community rally behind the affected family, offering them drinks, snacks and even footwear for the children. Thankfully, there were no casualties or major damages to the block, all thanks to SCDF's swift response.” 

Ms Tanti, who has been staying at her other brother’s home in Woodlands since the incident happened, said that she was still traumatised by the situation. 

“But I feel blessed to see the amount of love and blessings I have been receiving. There are no words to describe how I feel. The community has come forward to provide so much help,” she said. 

As the circuit breaker measures to stem the spread of Covid-19 do not allow renovations to be done during this time, Ms Tanti is unsure when she will be able to move back into her flat.

“Dr Lam said he will see what he can do to expedite the process. I understand that we all have to adhere to the circuit breaker. As long as I have a place to live with my kids and they are settled down and able to do their home-based learning under a roof, I am already happy. We can work the rest of it out later,” she said.

“Ramadan will not be the same this year, but we are still happy that we get to celebrate it together. Despite losing material things, we have not lost any lives. We are all still alive. My kids are still here with me, so I am still blessed to have them and we can still have a celebration in a small home.”

Ms Tanti was also looking forward to starting a new administrative assistant job on Monday, but decided to forgo it to “settle everything surrounding this incident”.

“As for the job, I am sure a better opportunity will come.”