SINGAPORE: There were two separate cases of fires involving personal mobility devices (PMDs) on Monday (Oct 28), with one incident forcing 40 occupants from the affected HDB block to evacuate before the authorities arrived.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) responded to the first incident at Bedok North at about 11.15am.
The fire broke out at a seventh floor unit at Block 106 Bedok North Ave 4, SCDF said in a Facebook post on Monday.
It involved the contents of the kitchen and was put out using a water jet, said SCDF.
A fire broke out at Block 106 Bedok North Ave 4 on Oct 28, 2019. (Photo: Facebook/SCDF)
A male occupant of the unit was taken to Singapore General Hospital for smoke inhalation, and about 40 residents of the block evacuated before SCDF arrived.
About 40 minutes after the Bedok North incident, SCDF responded to a second incident at an e-scooter shop at 33 Lorong 19 Geylang.
The fire involved the contents of a storage room within the shop and was extinguished using one water jet. A shop worker was taken to Singapore General Hospital for burn injuries.
“Preliminary investigations into the cause of both fires indicate that they were of electrical origin from PMDs which were charging at the time of the fires,” SCDF said in its post.
READ: Ban on personal mobility devices? ‘The battle is always against errant use’
READ: 54 fires involving PMDs and power-assisted bicycles reported in first half of 2019
The number of reported fires involving power-assisted bicycles and PMDs has more than doubled in the first half of 2019, compared to the same period last year.
There were a total of 54 reported fires involving such mobility devices from January to June this year, according to SCDF.
That is more than double compared to the same period last year, when there were 24 such reported fires.
