About 20 people were evacuated on Sunday, January 4 after a fire broke out in a high-rise residential unit at People's Park Complex in Chinatown, authorities said.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that it was alerted to the incident at around 1.55 pm. The fire occurred in the living room of a flat located on the 21st floor of the mixed-use development at 1 Park Road. Firefighters entered the unit and brought the blaze under control using two water jets.
No one was inside the flat when the fire started and there were no reported injuries, SCDF added. As a precautionary measure, residents from nearby units were evacuated while emergency responders carried out firefighting operations.
Images shared on social media platform Xiaohongshu showed thick smoke billowing from the affected unit, which was visibly engulfed in flames. According to the photos, several emergency vehicles, including at least three fire engines and multiple police vehicles, were deployed to the scene.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
In a Facebook post following the incident, SCDF reminded members of the public to adopt basic fire safety practices at home. These include extinguishing lighted materials such as candles before leaving the house, avoiding unattended cooking, not overloading power sockets and switching off electrical appliances when they are not in use.
The incident comes amid continued concerns over residential fires in Singapore. According to SCDF's annual statistics report released on February 13, 2025, the force received 968 calls related to residential fires in 2024. Of these, electrical faults and unattended cooking were the two leading causes, accounting for 299 and 335 cases respectively.
The report also noted an increase in fires caused by electrical sources, with such incidents rising by 8.3% in 2024 compared with the previous year.
