A man died last night when his electric scooter burst into flames in a housing block elevator in Woodlands.
The unnamed 20-year-old man was on the second floor of Block 537 Woodlands Drive 16 when the fire erupted, the Singapore Civil Defence Force, or SCDF, said today. He died from his injuries after he was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
“The fire involved a Personal Mobility Device (PMD) in a lift and was extinguished by members of the public using buckets of water prior to SCDF’s arrival,” SCDF said in today’s statement.
Emergency responders said they were alerted to the incident at around 11:25pm. More than 90 residents were later evacuated from the public housing block.
Police investigations are ongoing but early findings show that the fire was started by the electric vehicle. Images shared online showed the charred interior of the elevator, with remnants of what looked like an e-scooter on the floor.
Last year, Singapore reported over 60 fires related to PMDs, down from more than 100 in 2019. All other motorized vehicles, including electric scooters, electric skateboards and hoverboards, have been banned from footpaths since 2019.
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