Elderly woman dies after fire in Bukit Panjang flat on Sept 28
This would make it the sixth death from a fire in two months.
On September 28, a 77-year-old woman, unconscious upon hospital arrival, succumbed to her injuries, marking the sixth fatality from a residential fire since July 28, according to police. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) reported the fire at Block 126 Pending Road, Bukit Panjang, was detected around 3pm, with black smoke emanating from a sixth-floor unit. Upon arrival, firefighters found the source of the blaze in the living room, which involved items, and swiftly extinguished it using a water jet.
During the operation, the SCDF located the unconscious woman and extracted her from the unit. Medical personnel promptly administered CPR before transporting her to Woodlands Hospital. A neighborly unit occupant was also taken to Singapore General Hospital for smoke inhalation assessment.
Approximately 70 residents from the impacted block were evacuated as a precautionary measure. As of September 30, the scene still exuded a lingering smoke odor. The affected unit, adjacent to the lift on the sixth floor, bore a white sheet draped from its door to a nearby pole, revealing a black ceiling and walls littered with soot and debris. A pail sat atop a makeshift table outside the unit. Neighbors speculated that an exploding trash-burning container sparked the fire, as its lid lay outside.
This tragic event joins five other fire-related deaths since July 28: a 70-year-old man in MacPherson on July 28, a 65-year-old man in Clementi on July 31, an 88-year-old man in Little India on August 3, a 67-year-old man in Jurong East on August 16, and a 68-year-old man in Upper Serangoon on September 1. According to SCDF’s 2025 annual statistics, six fire fatalities and 94 injuries were recorded, with a 3% surge in residential fires compared to 2024.
Unattended cooking and electrical faults, particularly in wiring or overloaded sockets, remained the leading causes, accounting for 1,051 of the 2,050 fires, including 304 electrical fires involving active mobility devices.
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