Four alive thanks to quick-thinking five

Boom.

It's probably the sound of traffic, thought Mr Gan Hwee Sun, 72.

He continued with his shower around 8am on Friday. Then one of his flatmates shouted in Hokkien: "Fire, fire!"

Mr Choon Siew Weng, 56, yelled that fire was raging near the front door of their one-room unit in Block 115, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4.

They had to get out through the kitchen window of their second-storey unit.

He ran to the kitchen, climbed out of the window on to a ledge and jumped down.

The others in the flat, Madam Teo Siew Choo, 50, and her brother, known only as Mr Teo, 37, also ran into the kitchen.

Mr Teo then followed Mr Choon in jumping out from the ledge.

Madam Teo and Mr Gan climbed out of the window but didn't dare make the leap. They stayed perched on the ledge while clinging to their kitchen window. They were later helped down by cleaners.

Madam Teo was later taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) along with her brother, Mr Choon, and an elderly neighbour who lived on the third storey.

Singapore Civil Defence Force firefighters put out the blaze within 10 minutes. Residents from the second to fifth storey of the block were evacuated as a precaution.

Most of them are elderly.

Mr Gan told reporters that he and Madam Teo were members of a Chinese band which plays at funerals.

At KTPH, Madam Teo recalled she was woken up by an explosion.

After rushing out of the unit, she remembered holding onto bamboo poles outside her flat for dear life.

She is nursing burns on her arms and shoulders.

She also does not know where she is going after she leaves the hospital as she cannot get in touch with her son. She has no other relatives. All her belongings were lost in the fire, including a mobile phone and wallet.

Mr Gan and Mr Choon suspect an electric bicycle belonging to Madam Teo, which was being charged at the time, started the fire.

A KTPH spokesman said Mr Choon and Madam Teo were transferred to the Singapore General Hospital for burn injuries.

Mr Teo is in the hospital's high-dependency unit with injuries from the fall, he added.

As the fire rages on, two of them jump to safety

We had no choice but to jump.

And no, we did not leave our friends behind. They refused to jump, Mr Choon maintained.

He said that as the flames rushed at them, all four of them ran to the kitchen window.

"Madam Teo's younger brother wanted to use water to douse the fire, but I just said, 'No, it definitely won't work.'

"That was when I decided to jump."

Mr Choon, a cook, injured both legs.

"There wasn't time to think about anything. I just knew we had to jump. If we stayed in the flat, we'd be finished."

Madam Teo's brother jumped after he saw Mr Choon on the floor. They then shouted at Madam Teo and Mr Gan to do the same, but they refused.

He said they were desperate.

"It was like a gas explosion. The flames were very thick and the beds were burning," Mr Choon recounted.

The front door was blocked and the only way out was through the kitchen window. Fortunately, their unit was on the second storey.

When The New Paper met Mr Choon at KTPH, both his legs were in casts up to the knees.

"It's very painful," he said with a grimace.

Enter the heroes with mattresses and a ladder

Cleaner Rahman Arifur, 31, was sweeping the floor at the first storey when he spotted two people on the parapet.

They were crouching under the thick smoke billowing out of the kitchen windows.

Inside the second-storey flat, the fire was spreading quickly.

Mr Gan and Madam Teo were frozen with fear on the parapet.

Lying injured on the first storey were Madam Teo's younger brother and Mr Choon.

Mr Rahman called his supervisor, Mr Abu Repon, 38, who roped in Mr Rasel Sake, 28, and Mr Badel Sadot Alli, 40, to help.

Mr Rahman ran to a nearby block, grabbed a ladder from the storeroom and propped it up below the burning flat with Mr Rasel's help.

The others and 36-year-old local Patrick Perera then stacked three disposed mattresses underneath.

Just in case Madam Teo and Mr Gan lose their footing, the quick-witted rescuers thought.

Mr Rasel said: "If they had jumped and died in front of me, my heart (would feel the) pain."

Mr Abu then scaled the ladder and took Madam Teo by the hand.

She was shaking and crying loudly.

He said: "I kept telling her, 'Don't worry.'"

Slowly, he guided her down while reassuring her.

Mr Abu then went up for Mr Gan.

He said with a chuckle: "After I got him down, he kept thanking me and said that Bangladeshi workers were very good."

The Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived soon after.

Lieutenant Muhammad Nur Adli, 21, sawed off a portion of the metal gate that was padlocked and forced the main door open.

"When we entered the unit, we were not only looking for fire, but most importantly for casualties," he said.

The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, another group of firefighters rushed to the third-storey unit, which was directly above the burning flat. There, they found Madam Aisha Abu, who was locked in her flat.

She could not find the keys for the two padlocks at the front gate as her husband had locked up the flat before leaving for work.

Sergeant Benjamin Tan Jun Yong, 23, used a power saw to cut through the two padlocks. "She was panicking and in tears, crying for help," he recounted.

They got her out safely and her husband was soon at the scene comforting her.

How one dog is saved and the other dies

Madam Teo had adopted two dogs - a male and a female.

But sadly, only the female escaped Friday's blaze. It ran out of the flat when the firefighters smashed through the unit's front door.

The dog was later found and put on a leash by a worker from the nearby Thye Hua Kwan Senior Activity Centre.

When The New Paper arrived at the scene at about 9.20am, a neighbour was walking the Jack Russell terrier. The dog stayed close to Mr Gan.

But its male companion met a grisly end.

As firefighters were clearing out the unit, the burnt carcass of a male dog was seen along the corridor.

It was later removed.

Auntie, Auntie, help me

Her neighbour had been screaming for help.

Madam Letchumy, 58, who lives in a unit on the third storey, rushed over to Madam Aishah Abu's home. Madam Aishah, 29, was crying hysterically, shouting "Auntie, auntie, help me!", said Madam Letchumy.

Acrid smoke had filled Madam Aishah's flat, rousing her from sleep.

And because the flat below hers was burning, the air in her unit had become unbearably warm and the floor was too hot to walk on.

Then the petrified housewife realised she could not get out of her own flat because of the padlocks. She was panicking and couldn't find the keys.

Madam Letchumy rushed back to her flat, called the police and returned to comfort her neighbour.

"After I called the police, I went over and stayed with her, holding her hand through the gate to tell her not to be scared until the police came and asked me to go down (to the void deck)," Madam Letchumy told The New Paper.

She stayed with her neighbour for about 20 minutes.

"But even then I still didn't want to go down. I waited there while they cut the lock, then I went down with her," she said.

Madam Aishah's husband, Mr Muhammad Taufiq Khamis, 29, had taken the padlock keys with him.

The car washer, who works at a nearby petrol kiosk, said that he did it for his wife's safety, saying she was naive. He said he prefers that his wife remains in the flat as he does not want her to be influenced by "people like drug addicts" who may be in the neighbourhood.

"In the future, I will take my wife along to work. She can keep me company while I wash cars," he said.

The couple have an eight-month-old son who stays with Mr Muhammad Taufiq's mother in Johor.

Even though the fire was extinguished in the morning, the floor of his home was still warm at about 3.15pm on Friday.

Some of the floor tiles had popped out due to the heat.

Said Mr Muhammad Taufiq, who earns about $1,800 a month: "I have to clean up this mess and replace the tiles. But it's fine.

"A man has to provide and take care of his family. And that is what I'm doing right now."

Rescuers honoured with award

The SCDF presented awards to the men involved in the rescue on Friday.

The four Bangladeshi cleaners, as well as local Patrick Perera, were given the Public Spiritedness Award.

Said Mr Abu Repon: "When I saw that they were in trouble, I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. I had to help."

Said Mr Perera, who lives in the same block: "If you see anyone in trouble, it is your duty to help..." Lieutenant Muhammad Nur Adli and Sergeant Benjamin Tan Jun Yong are full-time national servicemen (NSFs).

On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean had spoken about how crucial NSFs are.

Speaking at the Home Team National Service Awards Presentation Ceremony, he said: "Despite their young age, they have demonstrated leadership, professionalism and courage during fire and rescue operations."

Get The New Paper for more stories.