Fire breaks out at Teban Gardens HDB flat, about 150 people evacuated

About 150 people were evacuated after a fire broke out at a HDB flat in Jurong East on the first day of Chinese New Year (Feb 17).

The incident happened at about 4.20pm on Tuesday at Block 34 Teban Gardens Road.

Responding to AsiaOne's queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said the fire involved the living room of a 11th-floor unit, adding that firefighters had to forcibly enter the smoke-filled flat, before putting out the fire with a water jet.

"About 150 persons from the affected block were evacuated by the police and SCDF as a precautionary measure," it said.

No one was inside the unit at the time of the incident, and there were no reported injuries.

Preliminary findings indicate that the cause of the fire was likely from an electrical origin in the living room.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday evening, MP Cassandra Lee (West Coast-Jurong West GRC) said that residents of the affected block had helped each other to evacuate and account for neighbours.

She said that a resident in a flat next to the affected unit had mobility difficulties but was evacuated safely.

In a second update of the incident posted on Wednesday (Feb 18), Lee said that HDB has arranged for temporary accommodation for the affected family, sharing that HDB's engineers have completed structural checks and confirmed that the block is structurally sound.

SCDF has also issued an advisory for residents to always switch off electrical appliances when they are not in use, adding that electrical outlets should not be overloaded with electrical appliances.

It also advised them to check the condition of electrical wires regularly, and to only use appliances and electrical plus bearing the safety mark.

More residential fires in 2025

Fires in residential premises went up last year, by 8.6 per cent from 968 cases in 2024 to 1,051.

Unattended cooking remained the top cause of fires that occur in homes, even though it fell by 17 to 318 cases in 2025.

For fires of electrical origin, there were 304 cases in 2025, a slight increase of 5 per cent from 299 in 2024.

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editor@asiaone.com