S'porean man's kitchen stove hood catches fire in AMK condo, domestic helper extinguishes blaze

A Singaporean family's stove hood caught fire in their Ang Mo Kio condo, and erupted into a blaze that nearly spread to the rest of their home if not for the quick thinking of their domestic helper.

Lester Tan, 49, spoke to Mothership about the incident that occurred on Feb. 5, 2026, in his home at around 6:27pm after his domestic helper, Marsani, 39, had just finished cooking dinner.

"After reading plenty of news about fire coming [from] PMDs — didn’t expect ours to come from the cooker hood."

Tan said that his domestic helper left the stove hood running to clear the steam and smoke before heading back to her room, but just minutes later, she smelled smoke.

'Fierce blaze all the way to the ceiling'

Tan said that a "likely failure in the exhaust fan of the hood sparked the first burning flame".

He said that the fire started small, with just the central fan area of the stove hood burning.

At the time, Tan and his family were returning from work and were 15 minutes away from home.

Just as his domestic helper panicked and phoned the family to tell them of the fire, the blaze grew bigger.

"That small flame suddenly erupted into a fierce blaze all the way to the ceiling, likely fueled by the oil trapped in the filters."

Within seconds, white smoke engulfed the living room, and a brand new smoke detector that Tan had purchased prior began screaming.

Grabbed fire extinguisher

A neighbour rushed over and urged the domestic helper to get out, but she stood her ground, grabbed the fire extinguisher by the stove and put out the fire.

Tan said that just three minutes later, the fire would have swallowed the kitchen's wooden cabinets.

Marsani managed to put out the fire in five minutes, saving the Tan family's home, leaving only slight burn marks on the edge of the kitchen cabinets.

Tan said that the family bought the stove hood around two to three years ago and had not changed the charcoal filter since then.

He and his contractor believe that the charcoal filter was very oily, as the family cooks Asian-style food at home.

Fire safety

Tan said that he had prepared for a potential fire after reading the news, purchasing multiple fire extinguishers, a smoke detector, fire blankets and smoke masks.

"I even conducted fire drill with my daughters, practicing how to leopard-crawl under smoke, identify escape routes, and how to operate various types of extinguishers."

He noted that his "paranoia is exactly what prevented a full-blown disaster in this fiery 'Fire Horse' year".

For more fire safety tips, check out SCDF's fire safety and emergency advisories here.

Top photo from Lester Tan