Source : The Straits Times, Sun, Aug 05, 2007
HE LIVED through the terrifying Bukit Ho Swee Fire of 1961.
So when his neighbour pounded on his door at 6am last Friday, waking him with shouts of 'Fire!', Mr Cheong Soon Onn had an overwhelming sense of deja vu.
'Can you believe it, twice in my lifetime? I can only thank the gods that I'm still alive,' said the unemployed 65-year-old in Hokkien.
His family lost their home and medicinal shop in the biggest fire Singapore has experienced since World War II in the 60s.
But on Friday, just hours after he lost his one-room rental flat in Jalan Bukit Merah to a fire in his next-door neighbour's unit, he found a new home in the same block, on the tenth floor.
He was one among seven affected residents who drew lots for new flats - all immediate neighbours of Mr Chan Fook Seng, 73.
One resident, odd-job labourer Juan Kai Tiong, 45, was given a temporary flat because his unit was not as damaged as the rest.
He at least escaped unscathed in the 6.15am blast which blew out a wall and kitchen windows.
But Mr Chan suffered burns on 80 per cent of his body.
The fire and smoke also spread quickly to the other neighbouring units, destroying furniture and blackening walls and ceilings.
The Kim Tian West Residents' Committee is working with Sarah Senior Activity Centre in the block to identify needs specific to each family, and may provide financial aid, household appliances and daily meals to tide them over.
Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC Koo Tsai Kee said the spartan new flats in the same block and neighbouring blocks may be furnished with beds and cupboards.
An HDB spokesman added that the board would bear the full cost of repairing the damaged units.
But some, like sixth-floor resident Ms Salbiyah Sinin, need more than just furniture.
The unemployed 33-year-old, who is getting married to her 26-year-old fiance in November, lost all her wedding favours to the fire.
The 400 pieces of packed towels were covered in soot and smelt charred.
Mr Cheong, who also received a new bed from a social worker, was trying to rescue what he had left. He was up washing his soot-covered clothes till 5am yesterday.
Yesterday, close to 10 workers trudged up and down the darkened and wet corridor outside Mr Chan's flat clearing the burnt debris from the units and doing rewiring work.
Part-time office cleaner Madam Lim Soo Kiow, 58, said she will need 'weeks' to resettle into her new home with her 20-year-old son on the sixth floor.
Her blackened unit directly above Mr Chan's was filled with baskets, boxes, even a cargo bicycle.
She hopes she can be compensated for the damage - the family's computer, fridge and cupboard are destined for the dump now.
The cause of the blast is still under investigation.
A spokesman for Singapore General Hospital (SGH) said both Mr Chan and his neighbour in the opposite flat, Madam Chan Soo Ngan, 79, are in critical but stable condition at its Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Madam Chan was trapped in her home after a front wall from Mr Chan's flat collapsed and blocked her only way out.
Her next-door neighbour, who wanted only to be known as Mr Wong, said he was gasping for air at his kitchen window when he heard Madam Chan calling out to him.
'Her voice was getting weaker like she was going to die. I was very worried and wanted to save her, but I couldn't,' said the 23-year-old air-conditioning technician who has been close neighbours with Madam Chan for years.
The two were reunited in an ambulance shortly after.
'She extended her hand to me as we lay there and she showed me her keys. Then she said, 'Can you take my keys and lock up my flat for me?''
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