Fire at Hougang flat leaves one woman dead

SINGAPORE: A woman died in a fire that broke out at a 6th floor flat in Hougang Avenue 10.

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the incident at block 413 around 3.20pm.

Two fire engines, one red rhino, one supporting vehicle and one ambulance were sent to the location.

Officers found the victim on the ground floor, directly beneath the kitchen window.

SCDF said the fire was near the kitchen window and involved newspapers and kitchen products like liquid detergents.

They also found the kitchen gas stove left in an 'on' position but there were no cooking on the stove.

The case has been handed over to the police.

4 hospitalised in NUS fire

UPDATE: The fire was extinguished at about 7.10pm, according to a statement by SCDF.

A fire has been reported in the National University of Singapore's (NUS) E3A building at the Faculty of Engineering.

According to The Straits Times, the fire, which started at 2.15pm, burnt through the block and spread to the rooftop

The paper also reported that fire is believed to have started from a research laboratory in Block E3A and spread over the seven-story building.

As of 5.45pm, the paper reported that officers from SCDF are are still at the scene working to control the fire on the first and second floor.

According to The Straits Times three firefighters were sent to the National University Hospital for heat exhaustion.

A male security guard suffering from smoke inhalation was also admitted to the hospital.

Witnesses who contributed photographs of the blaze to Stomp reported hearing an explosion as the fire was burning.

Boy hero dies trying to save sister

JOHOR BARU - Twelve-year-old Rohman Selamat was a hero for saving the lives of six of his family members, including his parents, when a fire broke out from their shophouse.

He then rushed in to save his 13-year-old sister Khusnulkhotimah.

However, both teenagers died in the incident at Ayer Baloi, Pontian, yesterday.

Their mother Hasniah Abdul Hussein, 50, said the family were awakened by Rohman's screams at 4.30am that a fire had broken out.

"The smoke was already quite thick, and all of us rushed out. That was when we realised that it was a huge fire," she said yesterday.

Hasniah then realised that her youngest son and daughter were missing. However, she and the other survivors, and neighbours couldn't do anything to save them due to the heat.

"I could only watch helplessly as the fire razed our house. Rohman loved his sister so much. They were quite close," she said.

Hasniah said a neighbour later told her that they saw Rohman asking for help from the second floor of the building.

The bodies of the two victims were buried at the Wakaf Besar Muslim cemetery here.

Eight shophouses were also destroyed in the fire.

Johor Fire and Rescue Department assistant director of operations Hamid Suari said 35 firemen and five fire-engines were sent to the scene after they received a distress call at around 4.40am. The cause of the fire was still being investigated.

Pontian deputy OCPD Deputy Supt Wan Razani Wan Ibrahim said that a man, Ng Kim Leong, 50, died of heart failure when witnessing the fire.