A man, who had been arguing with his wife on the phone, ended up setting fire to his Choa Chu Kang flat.
One of his tenants and her 3½-year-old daughter were in the flat at that time.
The Saturday evening blaze destroyed the flat but, fortunately, no one was hurt.
The dramatic events were recounted to The New Paper by the tenant’s husband, who wanted to be known only as Mr Johnson.
The 29-year-old said his wife had told him that from their room, they heard their landlord arguing angrily with someone on the phone.
Then, it went quiet.
About 15 minutes later, at about 7.40pm, smoke wafted into their room.
Before they could figure out what happened, they heard frantic knocks on their door.
It was their landlord, dressed in only his boxers, screaming: “Come out!”
Mr Johnson, his wife, also 29, and their daughter had just moved into the 12th-storey flat at Block 688A, Choa Chu Kang Drive, earlier that day.
As the fire progressed, residents were hit by the acrid smoke from the burning 12th-storey unit.
Then, they heard sounds of explosions.
“My landlord was sitting at the stairs, crying,” added Mr Johnson.
“He was crying and kept apologising. He said he had wanted to kill himself but got scared when the fire grew bigger.”
The man had started the fire by burning bedsheets.
The 45-year-old was later arrested by police.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said about 40 residents living on the 12th, 13th and 14th storeys were evacuated from the block.
The fire was put out by a water jet and no one was injured, he added.
Source: www.tnp.sg
