6000 Homeless In Singapore Fire

Press, Volume C, Issue 29524, 27 May 1961, Page 11

6000 Homeless In Singapore Fire

tN .2 PJt.-Reuter—Copyright) SINGAPORE, May 26. Six thousand are homeless after a fire which last night swept through five square miles of shanty housing on Singapore Island.

Singapore authorities an- tl nounced today that four r schools had been closed for a two weeks to provide accommodation for the homeless. F The fire, which blazed ii fiercely for six hours, was t finally subdued by the Island’s entire fire fighting v force early yesterday. ii The exact number of r casualties is not known, as the blaze raged through a s wide and densely populated t area of the city. a First police reports, however, put the death toll at « two. with several injured, t The fire is believed to i have started in a cinema and ’ jumped to nearby thatched- t roof huts. Fanned by a high after- I noon wind the flames swept i through food stores, restaur- s ants, coffee houses and huts i Drums of kerosene and I cooking oil exploded every- 1 where In showers of sparks I All city and suburban fire engines answered emergency < calls. I Under a eloud of black < smoke, it swept through i approximately one thousand < shops and living quarters in the centre of Singapore. 1 More than 600 British I troops moved In with bulldozers to cut a fire break

through a block of attaproofed buildings adjacent to a large textile mill. Units of the British Army Fire Service were also fight, ing on one of the main sections of the fire front. Immediately opposite them was an inferno which earlier in the day had been a coconut oil factory. A slight pall of white smoke and steam hangs over the devastated residential area. Standing isolated are sev. eral blocks of flats saved by the Singapore firemen who were mobilised to flgbt the worst Are that Singapore has experienced. The fiats were erected by the Government after a similar but smaller fire had swept through almost the same area in 1959. Their purpose then, as now. was to house temporarily those left homeless. A British Army catering corps unit moved Into the Are stricken area with mobile canteens today. Rice and mutton were served to long queues of homeless Chinese. Meanwhile. Army trucks delivered 6000 blanket* and 3000 mattresses to be used in the emergency accommodation provided.