Residents praised for putting out altar fire outside flat off Balestier Road
Kolette Lim for The Straits Times
Two people were taken to hospital after an altar caught fire at a Housing Board block off Balestier Road in the early morning of Aug 23.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it was alerted to the fire at Block 112 McNair Road at 4am. It involved a shelf outside a unit on the 10th floor, SCDF added.
When officers arrived at the scene, residents had already extinguished the fire with buckets of water and a dry powder extinguisher, said SCDF.
One person was taken to Singapore General Hospital and another to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Jalan Besar GRC MP Shawn Loh praised the vigilance and courage of the residents of the block, and said that some went door to door to wake their neighbours up, to get them to evacuate.
"When I went down this morning, many were in good spirits. One said it was a 'blessing to have good neighbours who look out for another'," said Mr Loh in a Facebook post at about 11am on Aug 23.
"We will focus on restoring power to the remaining half of the block. This is expected to be completed by this evening," he added.
It is unclear how many households were affected by the outage.
The Jalan Besar Town Council and Residents Network are at the scene to provide assistance to residents who need it, said Mr Loh.
The cause of fire is under investigation, said SCDF.
The Straits Times has contacted Jalan Besar Town Council and HDB for more information.
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