{
  "id": 18155957,
  "title": "Woman, 34, starts fire outside ex-colleague’s Bukit Batok home thinking she was avoiding her but she was overseas",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/woman-34-starts-fire-outside-ex-colleagues-bukit-batok-home-thinking",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-04T17:41:19.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Mothership",
    "slug": "mothership",
    "url": "https://mothership.sg/2026/11/chinese-woman-fire-ex-colleagues-home-kicks-chair-fire/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A 34-year-old woman named Tong Huanling started a fire outside her ex-colleague's home in Bukit Batok on January 29, 2026, believing her ex-colleague was home and ignoring her. Tong was unaware that her ex-colleague, along with her husband and daughter, was overseas. She waited outside for an hour but received no response, suspecting her ex-colleague was deliberately avoiding her.\n\nUpon noticing lights turned on inside the flat, Tong knocked on the door and rang the doorbell multiple times. She eventually set a cardboard box filled with joss paper on fire near the flat's gate using a lighter borrowed from a stranger. Tong took a photo of the fire and sent it to her ex-colleague before kicking a chair, which fell onto the burning box and exacerbated the fire.\n\nThe fire was spotted by Tong's ex-colleague's husband through the peephole, who alerted the police. Neighbors managed to extinguish the blaze, but not before the fire had spread. Tong confessed to the police and admitted her actions were motivated by a desire to get her ex-colleague's attention. Her lawyer requested leniency due to Tong's mental health issues, including a diagnosis of adjustment disorder.\n\nThe court fined Tong Huanling S$3,000, taking into account her early guilty plea and time spent in remand. Despite the fire causing only S$25 in damages, the prosecution argued that the incident posed a significant safety risk in the residential area. The judge considered Tong's cooperation, lack of criminal record, and attempts to compensate the victims when delivering the sentence.",
  "summary": "She assumed her ex-colleague was ignoring her and became frustrated.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}