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Grandmother & 2 kids flee Toa Payoh flat after phone catches fire while being charged

A mobile phone reportedly burst into flames while it was being charged, causing a grandmother and her two grandchildren to flee their flat.

The ensuing blaze led to a six-year-old boy being sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation and the death of their pet cat.

Source: Singapore Civil Defence Force on Facebook

SCDF alerted to Toa Payoh fire on 14 July

According to a Facebook post by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), it was alerted to the fire at about 11.50am on Monday (14 July) morning.

The location was a 12th-floor unit in Block 194 Kim Keat Avenue.

Source: Google Maps

When SCDF arrived, one of the bedrooms was on fire, and firefighters extinguished it using a water jet.

However, the unit and the corridor area outside sustained heat and smoke damage.

About 60 people were evacuated from the block as a precautionary measure.

Phone emits sparks & smoke while charging, leads to Toa Payoh fire

A 39-year-old woman named only as Ms Liu (transliterated from Mandarin) told Lianhe Zaobao that the flat belonged to her brother.

When the fire broke out, her 70-year-old mother, 15-year-old niece and six-year-old nephew were at home.

She had left her phone at home when she went to work that morning, she said. Her mother was charging it in the bedroom when it suddenly emitted sparks and thick smoke, the elderly woman recalled.

Panicking, she tried to flee the flat with her grandchildren immediately but the boy initially threw a tantrum as he had to be awakened from his slumber first.

Boy sent to hospital for smoke inhalation

Though the three of them managed to escape, the boy, who has asthma, inhaled a lot of smoke, Ms Liu added.

SCDF said two people from the affected unit were assessed for smoke inhalation.

One of them was sent to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital while the other declined to be sent to the hospital.

Phone was purchased less than six months ago

Ms Liu told Zaobao that the phone that caught fire was purchased less than six months ago.

Thus, she was puzzled that it had caught fire, especially since it was not connected to any other electronic devices.

Source: Andreas Haslinger on Unsplash. Photo for illustration purposes only.

Her mother was very certain that the sparks had come from the phone, not the socket, she said.

SCDF said the cause of the fire is likely to be of electrical origin in the affected bedroom, according to preliminary findings.

It reminded the public not to overload electrical outlets with electrical appliances and always switch off appliances when they are not in use. Only appliances and electrical plugs bearing the Safety Mark should be used.

Flat completely burnt, cat died

When reporters visited the flat after the fire, they observed that its living room and bedroom had been blackened, though the bedroom was the worst affected.

Numerous items on the floor had been burnt almost to ashes.

Among them was the carcass of a cat, which unfortunately did not survive the fire.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao

According to SCDF’s annual statistics report for 2024, fires due to unattended cooking and electrical origin were the top two causes of fires in residential premises last year, with 299 out of 968 (31%) due to electrical origin.

Also read: 2 sent to hospital after fire in Choa Chu Kang, 3nd reported blaze on the same day

2 sent to hospital after fire in Choa Chu Kang, 3nd reported blaze on the same day

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Featured image adapted from Singapore Civil Defence Force on Facebook and Google Maps.