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Just hours before he died in a fire at his Serangoon flat, a 68-year-old man stopped to offer a few words of encouragement to his neighbour’s son.<\/p>\n
“Don’t worry, you be a good boy, and you will achieve good things in your life,” he told the boy on Tuesday (Sept 1) morning.<\/p>\n
They would be the last words Siti Aisyah Abdul Rahman, 46, remembers hearing from the elderly neighbour she had known for about eight years.<\/p>\n
Later that afternoon, a fire broke out in his third-floor unit at Block 8 Lorong Lew Lian.<\/p>\n
The man was found unconscious inside the flat and taken to hospital.<\/p>\n
Speaking to AsiaOne, Aisyah said the loss was difficult to process, given how frequently they had crossed paths over the years.<\/p>\n
“For the past eight years, almost every day I see him and we acknowledge each other,” she said.<\/p>\n
“What makes me more sad is that today, this morning before I left for work, he actually acknowledged me.”<\/p>\n
When Aisyah’s mom, Zaitun Idris, first smelled smoke outside her Serangoon flat, she thought someone nearby was burning incense.<\/p>\n
But when the 72-year-old stepped out of her unit at Block 8 Lorong Lew Lian, she saw thick smoke filling the corridor.<\/p>\n
That was when she realised a neighbouring unit was on fire.<\/p>\n
“I screamed, ‘tolong, tolong! fire, fire!'” she recalled.<\/p>\n
As the blaze intensified, Zaitun said she could hear the 68-year-old occupant struggling inside the third-floor unit.<\/p>\n
“I hear the pakcik banging, struggling, then fire start to come out of the unit,” she said.<\/p>\n
She also heard popping and crackling sounds coming from inside the flat.<\/p>\n
“I got scared. My children told me to evacuate,” she said.<\/p>\n
Unable to get closer because of the thick smoke and her asthma condition, she could only call for help.<\/p>\n
Her daughter was at work when her mother called her about the fire.<\/p>\n
With no younger family members at home to help, Aisyah told her mother to leave the flat and get herself to safety.<\/p>\n
Aisyah then contacted the Residents’ Committee manager for assistance, while neighbours helped Zaitun downstairs.<\/p>\n
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the fire<\/a> at about 2.45pm.<\/p>\n The blaze involved the contents of the living room and was extinguished using a water jet.<\/p>\n During firefighting operations, an unconscious man was found in the living room.<\/p>\n Firefighters brought him out and commenced cardiopulmonary resuscitation.<\/p>\n Police said the 68-year-old was taken unconscious to hospital, where he subsequently died.<\/p>\n Three women, aged between 51 and 95, were also taken conscious to hospital.<\/p>\n About 30 people were evacuated from the block by police and SCDF officers as a safety precaution.<\/p>\n Police said preliminary investigations do not suggest foul play. Investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n @asiaone<\/a> A man has died after a fire broke out at a third-floor HDB flat at Block 8 Lorong Lew Lian on Sept 1, with about 30 residents evacuated and three others taken to hospital. https:\/\/asia1.news\/3T2g4pw #sgnews<\/a> #Singapore<\/a> #Fire<\/a> #HDB<\/a> \u266c original sound – AsiaOne<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n Aisyah said she did not always see eye to eye with the elderly man.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite their occasional disagreements, Aisyah remembered him as a friendly and kind person.<\/p>\n \u201cI take it like he\u2019s a father figure,\u201d she said, adding that he coincidentally shares the same name as her own father.<\/p>\n As many of the residents in the area are elderly and their children are away at work during the day, Aisyah said she often tried to look out for him.<\/p>\n “To show him that there’s still someone you can talk to,” she said.<\/p>\n One memory in particular stood out.\u00a0<\/p>\n One Hari Raya, the man unexpectedly turned up at her doorstep to make peace.<\/p>\n “I was shocked because I was supposed to be the one making the first move,” she said.<\/p>\n He then went on to tell her: “We used to quarrel, but today is Hari Raya. Let’s forgive and forget. Now our score is 0-0.'”<\/p>\n The moment stayed with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aisyah said the encounter made her laugh and helped her see beyond their disagreements.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of the day, he\u2019s still an old man who needs attention,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Learning that he had died was especially painful, given their brief interaction just hours earlier.<\/p>\n Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng, who is also MP for Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, said in a Facebook post that he had known the deceased for many years.<\/a><\/p>\n “As he has been a resident here for many years and is by nature a friendly person, he will be missed,” he wrote.<\/p>\n [[nid:743287]]<\/p>\n\n
‘Like a father figure’<\/h2>\n