Grandmother and grandchildren escape fire in flat caused by mobile phone
Sparks and smoke were seen emanating from the charging phone.
A mobile phone which exploded while being charged caused a fire in a flat in Kim Keat Road on July 14, causing a 70-year-old woman and her two young grandchildren to flee the apartment.
While she and her granddaughter, 15, and grandson, 6, managed to escape, the boy, who is asthmatic, was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The fire broke out at about 11.50am in a 12-storey flat in Block 194, Kim Keat Road.
When Lianhe Zaobao visited the gutted flat on July 14, it found Ms Liu, 39, cleaning up outside the unit, which she said belonged to her brother.
Ms Liu is the daughter of the elderly woman, aunt to the teenage girl and mother of the six-year-old boy. She said she had left her phone at home when she went to work and that her mother later charged it in her room.
According to her mother, said Ms Liu, sparks and smoke came out of the phone while it was being charged.
She was in a state of panic as she tried to get her grandchildren out of the flat, waking up her sleeping grandson who threw a tantrum. She eventually managed to get them all out of the burning flat.
Ms Liu, who works in sales, said that her phone was less than half a year old, and the socket was not connected to other electrical devices. Her mother was certain the sparks and smoke came out of the phone and not the wall socket.
Lianhe Zaobao reported that the entire flat was charred, with damage to the room where the phone was charged being the most severe. The family's pet cat also died in the blaze.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a Facebook post that firefighters put out the flames with a water jet after entering the smoke-filled unit.
There was heat and smoke damage to the rest of the unit, as well as the corridor area, with about 60 residents from the block evacuated as a precaution.
Two people were assessed for smoke inhalation. One was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital, while the other declined to be taken to hospital.