SINGAPORE, Aug 23 — The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) will assess if additional measures are needed to prevent re-ignition, after a Jurong East flat went ablaze again on August 17, a day after a fire there was put out.

One resident was killed in the first blaze on August 16 at Block 236 Jurong East Street 21, which took firefighters around five hours to fully extinguish the flames. They had also carried out an operation to “damp down” the flat.

But a day later, another fire broke out in the in the master bedroom of the same flat despite the measures taken.

In response to media queries, an SCDF spokesperson said in a statement yesterday (August 22) that rekindled fires are “uncommon”.

“Notwithstanding this, the firefighting and damping down operation for this incident was very challenging as the entire unit contained a large volume of debris that were closely packed together from wall to wall,” said the spokesperson.

As part of its post-fire incident review, SCDF will assess whether more measures are needed for similar fire incidents in the future, while preserving the scene as intact as possible for fire investigation.

The safety of residents is of paramount importance for the SCDF, said the spokesperson.

There were 480 residential fires in both private and public homes in the first six months of 2022, which is lower than the 513 residential fires in the same time period in 2021, he added.

No sign of smoke or fire

Giving an overview of its response to the initial fire, SCDF said an extensive “damping down” operation was carried out in the Jurong East unit after the blaze was put out. The operation lasted for around eight hours.

The SCDF spokesperson said the duration of the damping down operation was assessed to be necessary, stressing that there was a need to preserve the scene for an investigation into the blaze.

As part of the damping down operation, firefighters deployed thermal imaging cameras to locate heat spots and guide firefighters to target their water jets at the affected areas.

To avoid causing additional damage that could affect the investigation, they avoided the excessive use of water, said the spokesperson.

The firefighters ended their operations at around 5pm that day, after the thermal imaging cameras showed that the temperature of the debris had reached normal ambient temperature levels and no heat spots were detected.

Subsequently, SCDF investigators left the scene at around 8pm and there was no sign of smoke or fire at the time, the spokesperson added.

But at around 5am on the next day, SCDF was alerted to a fire at the same unit, and found a “small localised fire” in the master bedroom that was quickly extinguished by firefighters using a water jet.

“The cause of the fire was likely due to deep seated embers that were not detected by the thermal-imaging cameras,” said the spokesperson, adding that SCDF has since then worked closely with the Town Council to remove the debris from the unit. ― TODAY