The 48-year-old man who was killed in a fire that broke out at a Jurong East HDB flat on 16 August, had been living there with his sister.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the deceased is 48-year-old Huang Mingquan, who lived there with his older sister, 50-year-old Huang Xiumei.
The sibling’s other 43-year-old sister told SMDN that the older Ms Huang sells newspapers and makes less than $300 a month; while Mr Huang works odd jobs and often took in old appliances and recyclable items.
The 43-year-old also said that the deceased would repair the electrical appliances that he brought home and sell them to the neighbours for just $2 or $3, or even give them away sometimes.
Recap
[Final Update: Block 236 Jurong East Street 21]
At about 2.50am today (16 Aug), SCDF was alerted to a fire at the above-mentioned location.
Upon SCDF’s arrival, the fire was raging inside a unit on the 9th floor. Firefighters penetrated into the heavily smoke-logged unit to conduct firefighting operations. In addition, a Combined Platform Ladder was deployed at the rear of the block for external firefighting.
SCDF firefighters extinguished the fire using three water jets. As a result of the fire, the entire unit was affected by heat and smoke damage.
An occupant in the affected unit self evacuated before SCDF’s arrival.
Due to the close proximity of an adjacent unit, SCDF firefighters conducted forced entry into this unit and rescued three occupants.
A body was found in the affected unit and pronounced dead by an SCDF paramedic.
Damping down operations* are currently ongoing.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
*Damping down refers to the application of water to wet burnt surfaces immediately after a fire is put out. It is to prevent any potential rekindle of fire from the hot burnt surfaces.