Fire breaks out in MacPherson terrace house when nobody home, neighbours use hoses & buckets to douse flames

A raging fire broke out in the yard of a MacPherson terrace house on Sunday (Nov. 24) night when its occupants were not at home.

As the fire spread to the house next door, neighbours brought out hoses and buckets to try and put out the blaze before the firefighters arrived.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) confirmed with Mothership that they were alerted to the fire at 46 Jalan Kemajuan, in MacPherson, at about 9:40pm.

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Heard exploding sound from next door: Neighbour

A neighbour of the affected house, surnamed She (transliteration) told Shin Min Daily News that her family heard the sound of an explosion while at home.

She went out to look and realised that a blaze had started in the yard of the house next door.

Immediately, She woke up her parents and others to evacuate.

"My father was sleeping at the time, and my mother was about to fall asleep, so they had to flee in their pyjamas", She said.

She turned off their power mains before leaving, while her father tried to put out the fire with a hose, but to no avail.

Neighbours came with buckets, hoses before SCDF arrived

Alerted by the commotion, neighbours showed up with buckets and hoses to help, but the fire was too big.

She then called SCDF, who showed up at the scene in about 10 minutes and extinguished the fire.

Police also cordoned off the area.

She told Shin Min that her family only lost their clothes and shoes that were drying in the yard to the fire.

No injuries were reported.

Shin Min reported that it understood that the fire was caused by oil lamps left in the house's yard.

Another neighbour lent clothes

Seeing that She's family stood in a group outside the police cordon while investigations were being conducted, one neighbour brought over towels, stools and water for them.

Another neighbour lent She's father some clothes as he had not put on a shirt in his haste to escape the fire.

She said the neighbouring terrace house was occupied by tenants who had moved in a year ago.

However, they were not at home that night.

SCDF statement

SCDF said that it arrived to find the front porch area of a terrace house was on fire.

SCDF conducted forcible entry on the house's entrance gate to access the front porch and extinguished the fire with a water jet.

No ambulance assistance was required.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Top image from Shin Min Daily News