Rebuilding lives after Jurong West market fire

It took stallholders years, and in some cases decades, to build up their businesses from scratch at Block 493, Jurong West Street 41.

Some served delicious hawker fare while others provided residents with essential items.

But in the early hours of Oct 11, their lives took a drastic turn after flames engulfed the wet market and coffee shop, razing the building to the ground.

Now, only skeletal stall fronts and a collapsed roof remain.

The blaze also damaged an adjacent coffee shop at Block 494, with witnesses reporting as many as three explosions and a fire that rose up to two storeys high.

About 300 residents evacuated the neighbouring blocks in one of Singapore’s worst fires in recent years.

A 41-year-old man was charged with committing mischief by fire on Oct 15.

Lim Ying Siang allegedly set fire to styrofoam boxes at the market at about 3am on Oct 11.

Demolition work on Block 493 started last Wednesday and it is expected to take about three weeks.

In the days following the incident, Jurong GRC MP Ang Wei Neng and various agencies stepped in to help the 51 affected stallholders, such as by giving them an emergency relief fund of $500 each.

A temporary market will be ready before Chinese New Year, although rebuilding a new permanent market is expected to take more than a year.

Two weeks on, while some stallholders have started exploring options to restart their businesses, others have found it hard to move on due to their age or lack of savings.

Ng Huiwen speaks to three who have been affected.

Distraught family determined to reopen stall nearby

When he was a teenager, Mr Soh Chun Wee ate chicken chop almost every day for several weeks as his dad tried to perfect the recipe.

Twelve years ago, his father, Mr Soh Chin Soon, had just started running his halal Western food stall at the Block 493 coffee shop in Jurong West Street 41.

“If it was too salty, I would give my feedback and dad would keep trying again and again,” recalled his son, now a 27-year-old traffic engineer.

“I remember being so sick of chicken chop after that.”

His father’s tenacity in whipping up the best dishes for his customers propelled his Western food business through the years.

Before the Oct 11 fire which ravaged the wet market and coffee shop, where Chicken Supremo Western Food was located, customers would flock from as far as Punggol to taste its signature chicken chop and coleslaw.

The stall has 3,819 followers on its Facebook page. Since the fire, several customers have visited the page to lament its loss.

However, it has not been easy.

Before he became a hawker in 1991, the elder Mr Soh, now 56, worked as a delivery driver.

After his second son was born, he decided to start his own business to better support the family.

The younger Mr Soh remembers his dad working 11-hour shifts each day, sometimes returning home after midnight.

One of the lowest points for the family was when his dad had to undergo a heart bypass operation about 20 years ago.

His mother ran the stall during the day and visited his dad in the hospital at night.

This went on for two months, with the younger Mr Soh tagging along with her.

He said: “Although it was tough for us, giving up was not an option.”

Seeing his father’s hard work pay off, with the customer base growing each year, has been a proud moment in his life.

“My family is what it is today because of my dad’s stall. It has helped put me and my brother through university,” he said.

He graduated from Nanyang Technological University last year, while his 25-year-old brother is in his final year at the Singapore Institute of Management.

Though they were distraught after the fire, the family plans to reopen the stall nearby.

“My dad is an optimistic guy and has never complained,” he said. “The fire is definitely a setback for him, but I am sure he can bounce back.”

Stall is gone but she visits site every day

Almost every day for the last decade, Madam Haw Mui Eng, has woken at about 5am to travel by bus to the coffee shop at Block 493, where she sold up to 500 bowls of fishball noodles until the afternoon.

When the 47-year-old started 493 Fishball Noodles with her husband in 2006, she wanted to make use of the skills she picked up as a hawker assistant to provide for her two sons, now aged 21 and 23.

But over the years, she forged close friendships with other stallholders at the building, where she worked for close to nine hours every day, except for two rest days a month.

Although her stall was destroyed in the fire, Madam Haw continues to wake up at the same hour to return to the site each day.

“I’m used to waking up early already. It’s my habit,” she said in Mandarin.

“I know the stall is now completely gone but I will go down to take a look at it, even if it’s just to stand behind the hoardings. Everything was burned down in an instant. My heart is broken.”

About 12 years ago, she began honing her cooking skills while working at a canteen stall at Choa Chu Kang camp for eight months.

As the menu varied each day, she learnt to cook a range of local fare, including laksa and fried beehoon.

Later, she decided to venture into her own business selling fishball noodles at a coffee shop near her home.

Business was slow, so she decided to cut her losses and shut down after six months. But soon after, she accepted an offer to run a stall at Block 493.

“This was the only trade that I knew, so I didn’t have the courage to try other jobs,” she said, adding that it took her about eight years to “perfect the skills of making a tasty bowl of noodles”.

Now, she spends her time chatting with the shopkeepers or residents in the area, or running a few errands before heading home to care for her family.

Her 60-year-old husband used to serve customers at the stall, before taking a break about a month ago after a cataract operation.

Her older son is currently studying at the Institute of Technical Education College Central, while the younger one is studying at the Lasalle College of the Arts.

With the family living from hand to mouth, she is worried what little savings that they have will be wiped out soon.

“I still find it hard to sleep at night. I wonder: ‘Will my kids have enough pocket money for school?”

After the blaze, she received $500 in immediate relief funds. She has also applied for government assistance for three months.

Last week, Lasalle offered to refund her son’s semester fees of $2,700 to ease the family’s financial burden.

The school has waived its fees for the next semester.

Though she is keen to start selling fishball noodles again, she is unsure if she can afford the $10,000 or more it will cost to do so in the near future.

Instead, she will look for suitable job options at an employment fair to be held on Thursday for affected stallholders.

Looking through the pictures of stallholders she had previously snapped with her mobile phone, she said: “We have become like family over the years and now we may have to go our separate paths.

I’m not sure I can let go yet. It’s a pity.”

Getting by on wages at supermarket

Madam Teo Ai Yoke was working the midnight shift at a supermarket at Block 491, Jurong West Street 41 when she heard a commotion outside.

Rushing out, the 65-year-old’s heart sank upon seeing the coffee shop and wet market at Block 493 in flames.

Her husband had run a stall at the wet market for the last 20 years, first as a florist and then selling imitation jewellery, before selling bags and slippers in the last few years.

A year ago, she began tending to the stall on her own, from 8am to 2pm, after he fell ill with a pancreas infection.

For about six days a week, she also works nights as a store assistant at a Giant Express supermarket, earning about $6 per hour.

That day, as the fire raged on for hours, Madam Teo said she did not think of alerting her husband.

“I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said. “Besides, he was already in bed. What could he have done?”

She said her husband has been moody and quiet since he heard about the news the next day.

The couple have been married for about four decades and have three children, aged between 30 and 40.

Although the affected stallholders have been offered an option to move to a temporary market in the next few months, Madam Teo is uncertain if she should take it up.

“For now, I will try my best to cope with the income from my store assistant job.”

This article was first published on Oct 23, 2016.
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