Nope, your eyes do not deceive you, there has been another Active Mobility Device (AMD) fire.
15 August had previously already seen a fire engulf 3 Personal Mobility Aids (PMA) in an HDB void deck, but it seemed like fate wasn’t content with just that.
Man Injured Jumping Out of Burning HDB Unit
On 16 August, at around 12:50 am, a family of three at Block 313 Hougang Ave 5 had an unwelcome surprise in the form of their Personal Mobility Device (PMD) bursting into flames in their living room.
PMDs are a type of AMD, just like PMAs, if the three-letter acronyms haven’t confused you enough yet.
Desperate to save their son, the father of the family opened the kitchen window and leapt out, reported Shin Min Daily News.
Fortunately, he lived on the second floor or we would be showing his obituary here.
Less fortunately, he injured his legs in the fall and was unable to get up. His wife then threw their child downstairs, where the father managed to catch him.
The injured man then yelled “Fire! Fire!” to alert others of the situation. A resident on the seventh floor of the block, among numerous others, heard the yelling and went down to the ground floor to investigate.
There, the residents found the injured father just chilling on the ground. Well, too injured to move, but it does look like he’s having a nice lepak in the video if not for the smoke pouring out of the window above.
“There’s still someone in the house!” The injured man yelled to those present. The resident from the seventh floor and several others quickly rushed to the second storey and attempted to bust down the unit’s front door to save her.
They failed but props for trying to help.
The family’s mother, still trapped in the kitchen, considered leaping out of the window as well. Her decision was made for her when the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived just then.
Some SCDF personnel set up a ladder to the unit’s window, while another team of firefighters broke through the unit’s door with specialised equipment.
PMD Caused Hougang HDB Unit Fire
The SCDF stated on Facebook that they entered the smoke-filled home and rescued the trapped woman from the kitchen. They then extinguished the fire with a water jet.
Four people were assessed by paramedics and three were sent to the hospital. It’s not clear where this fourth injured person came from.
Another 30 residents or so had also been evacuated as a precaution by police.
Mr Jackson Lam, Branch Chairperson of the PAP Hougang division, also showed up at the scene to monitor the situation and assist the affected residents. They gradually returned home at around 2 am.
Due to the raging flames, the affected unit’s living room had been seriously wrecked, while the rest of the house suffered damage from heat and smoke.
The SCDF’s investigations deemed the cause of the fire to be a PMD in the Hougang flat’s living room, which had been irrecoverably destroyed.
They reminded the public not to use non-original batteries, and not to charge them for extended periods or overnight.
The SCDF Annual Statistics for 2023 reported 55 fires caused by AMDs, mostly in residential areas, an increase from 42 the previous year. Of these, 18 were caused by PMDs.
Well, I’m sure Singaporeans aren’t too stubborn and are open-minded enough to listen to their useful fire safety advice.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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