Elderly woman dies after fire in Bukit Panjang flat on Sept 28

SINGAPORE – A 77-year-old woman who was taken unconscious to hospital after a fire in a Bukit Panjang flat on Sept 28 has died, the police said on Sept 30.

This would make it the sixth death from a fire since July 28.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a social media post on Sept 28 that it was alerted to the fire at Block 126 Pending Road at about 3pm that day.

When its officers arrived at the scene, black smoke was coming out of a unit on the sixth floor.

The fire involved items in the living room, said SCDF, adding that the cause of the fire is under investigation.

The fire was extinguished using one water jet.

Firefighters found an unconscious person in the living room during the firefighting operation, and took the person out of the unit.

An SCDF paramedic and emergency medical technicians performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before the person was taken to Woodlands Hospital.

Another person from a neighbouring unit was assessed for smoke inhalation and was taken to Singapore General Hospital.

About 70 people from the affected block were evacuated as a precaution.

When The Straits Times arrived at the scene on Sept 30 at about 9.15am, the smell of the smoke was still strong.

The affected unit, which is next to the lift on the sixth floor, had a white sheet draped from the door, which was ajar, to a pole outside.

The ceiling outside the unit was completely black. The walls were covered in soot, with lots of debris, and there were pails on what seems to be a table.

A town council cleaner said he had heard from neighbours that a trash-burning container had exploded, causing a fire. The lid of the container can be seen outside the unit.

He added that the resident lived alone.

There have been five other deaths from a residential fire since July 28:

• A 70-year-old man died after a fire broke out in an HDB flat in MacPherson in the early morning of July 28.

• A 65-year-old man died after a fire broke out in an HDB flat in Clementi late on July 31.

• An 88-year-old man died on Aug 5 after a fire broke out in an HDB flat in Little India on the evening of Aug 3.

• A 67-year-old man died after a fire broke out in an HDB flat in Jurong East in the early hours on Aug 16.

• A 68-year-old man died after a fire broke out at an HDB flat in Lorong Lew Lian, in Upper Serangoon, on Sept 1.

There were six fire fatalities and 94 fire injuries in 2025, according to SCDF’s annual statistics report in Feb 2026. There were seven fire deaths and 80 fire injuries in 2024.

According to the report, the total number of fires here increased by 3% – from 1,990 in 2024 to 2,050 in 2025. Of these, 1,051 involved fires at residential buildings.

Unattended cooking and electrical fires – including faults in electrical wiring or overloaded sockets – remained the top two causes of home fires.

Of the 304 cases of electrical fires at residential premises in 2025, 34 involved active mobility devices. These include personal mobility devices, power-assisted bicycles and personal mobility aids.