SINGAPORE: Personal trainer Shaik Amirudin had just completed a class at his gym in River Valley on Tuesday morning (Apr 8), when a client alerted him to a fire a few units down.

When he got to the front of the burning shophouse, he saw children sitting on the third-storey ledge.

Some construction workers had leapt into action and were helping to carry the children down, and Mr Shaik assisted by supporting the base of the scaffolding they were using. 

About four or five children remained trapped inside initially, he told CNA.

“Later on, they were carried out. Some of them were unconscious, their eyes rolled back, and they were badly burnt,” said Mr Shaik.

Cleaner Chan Teck Hock, who was across the road from the shophouse, was shocked by the sight that greeted him when he went over for a closer look.

He could see clearly that the faces and arms of those children were burned quite badly.

The police said on Tuesday evening that a total of 22 people were taken to hospitals - six adults aged between 23 and 55 and 16 children aged between six and 10.

Out of the casualties, 20 were conveyed by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

A 10-year-old girl subsequently died at one of the hospitals, said the police. 

The police added that no foul play is suspected based on preliminary investigations. Further investigations are ongoing. 

An inspection of the premises by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) after the fire showed that the structural integrity of the building was not affected.

"The fire did not affect the neighbouring buildings, which remain safe for occupancy," it said in a statement to CNA on Tuesday night. 

"As a precautionary measure, BCA has ordered the building owner to close off the affected building, and appoint a professional engineer to carry out (a) detailed investigation and recommend rectification works." 

"I FELT SCARED FOR THE CHILDREN"

When CNA arrived at the scene at 3.30pm, there was one fire engine, six police cars, a police van and two SCDF cars on the scene.

A police cordon was still up, with the back alley of the row of shophouses blocked off. CNA observed that the ground floor of the unit was completely charred.

Staff from Newtonshow, the children’s enrichment centre that occupied the burnt shophouse, were gathered at a cafe nearby, next to another one of its branches. They declined to speak to the media.

Newtonshow is under the same ownership as the Orange Mood Group education centre, whose name is on the signboard at the front of the building.

Among the construction workers who mounted the rescue after seeing the thick, black smoke was Mr Subramanian Saranraj, a lorry driver from interior design firm Monoloft.

He was about to exit the car park of Valley Lodge condominium when he noticed the blaze.

Noticing the children being helped out onto the window ledge by adults, their faces covered in soot, he and his four colleagues grabbed the scaffolding they were working on, along with a ladder, and rushed across the road to help.

“I felt scared, but not for myself. I felt scared for the children, because they were so small and couldn’t climb out on their own. There were many children, and I saw their faces, many were crying,” he told CNA.

Together with other construction workers from another company, they also diverted traffic as the fire raged.

"LIKE A WAR ZONE"

Mr Shaik, who runs Flex Fitness, said he first saw the fire at about 9.50am.

A client who parked behind the shophouse had noticed the smoke and rushed back in to inform him.

“The fire was getting really big, and I figured there’s no way I could go in,” said Mr Shaik, adding that his neighbour called the police and SCDF.

“There was no major explosion, but I could hear small ‘pop’ sounds coming from the unit”.

He called his team and told them about the fire and instructed them to have extinguishers on stand-by should the blaze spread. After a while, they decided to evacuate for safety.

He then went to the front of the unit, where he saw the children sitting on the ledge.

He proceeded to help support the scaffolding as the workers passed the kids down a human chain from the third floor.

“The adults cleared the kids out first ... (a) lady at the top was shouting to tell us that there were more kids, about four or five, still stuck inside.”

Mr Chan also said there was no explosion, and that the first sign of the fire was the thick black smoke.

“The smoke was very thick, and it looked like a war zone, like what you see only on the TV,” he told CNA.

In total, the first responders saved about 10 children, before the SCDF and police arrived and took over with professional equipment, said Mr Chan.

PARENTS INFORMED OF INCIDENT

The mother of a four-year-old girl who attended a class at Newtonshow said she received a call at 1pm from her daughter’s teacher, telling her that her child's class was safe.

“I thought it was weird, because they just said there was an incident but didn’t elaborate, and didn’t mention that there was a fire,” said the woman, who only wanted to be known as Ms Fu.

Speaking in Mandarin, she added that her daughter was part of a class that was on a field trip to the Science Centre.

From her home near UE Square, she first saw many public buses lined up and cordons set up at about 11am.

She later left her home at 12pm and noticed that traffic was fully diverted, but was still not aware of what had happened.

Ms Fu received the call when she was at Changi Airport to send a friend off, and at 3pm was told to go pick her daughter up from another Newtonshow branch near the blaze site.

She added that most of the students there were from international schools, like her daughter.

“We’ve been told that tomorrow the classes will continue as per normal, but some other staff said that is not confirmed,” said Ms Fu, adding that she had not decided if her daughter would attend the classes on Wednesday. 

SCENES AT THE HOSPITAL

At KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where some of the injured were taken, a sign was put up directing families to a holding area.

Mdm Iryanti, whose daughter teaches part-time at a robotics school under the Orange Mood Group, was among the family members.

Her daughter, who was on the first floor with about five students when the fire broke out, suffered only slight smoke inhalation injuries, Mdm Iryanti was told.

“She could hear the explosion and see the fire and the smoke,” Mdm Iryanti told CNA. Her daughter quickly escorted the children to safety before returning to help move others to a nearby building.

The teacher texted her parents after 10.30am to say she was unharmed, though shaken. 

She told her mother that the situation was chaotic and the children were crying.

Additional reporting by Natasha Ganesan and Erin Liam.