70-year-old man dies after MacPherson HDB flat fire on 28 July
A 70-year-old man died after a fire broke out in a ninth-floor HDB flat at Block 39 Circuit Road in MacPherson on 28 July 2026. About 80 residents were evacuated as a precaution while the Singapore Civil Defence Force and police investigate the cause of the blaze.
- A 70-year-old man died after a fire in a MacPherson HDB flat on 28 July 2026.
- About 80 residents were evacuated while firefighters extinguished the blaze.
- The cause of the fire remains under investigation by SCDF and police.
A 70-year-old man died after a fire broke out in a Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat in MacPherson early on 28 July 2026, with firefighters finding him unresponsive inside the smoke-filled unit.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and police said they were alerted to the fire at about 2.05am at a ninth-floor unit in Block 39 Circuit Road.
Firefighters forced entry
According to SCDF, firefighters forced their way into the flat and found the man lying unresponsive in the living room.
Rescuers immediately carried him out of the unit and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before he was taken to Changi General Hospital. He later died.
SCDF said the fire, which involved items in the living room, was "swiftly extinguished". As a precaution, about 80 residents from the block were evacuated during the operation.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, with police inquiries also ongoing.
According to Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao, a neighbour living on the same floor said the occupant did not stay at the flat every day and had only been seen a few times.
The neighbour described him as friendly and said he would greet residents when they met.
The neighbour added that other residents had mentioned the man regularly bought oil for religious offerings but said she did not know whether it had any connection to the fire.
Another neighbour alleged that the deceased may have had hoarding tendencies, claiming the flat contained large amounts of belongings.
The neighbour also said others had helped carry large quantities of canned food into the unit and that foul odours had previously been noticed outside the flat.
According to SCDF's annual statistics report released in February, the total number of fires increased by 3 per cent from 1,990 cases in 2024 to 2,050 cases in 2025.
Of those, 1,051 fires occurred in residential buildings, representing an 8.6 per cent increase from the 968 cases recorded in 2024.
SCDF said unattended cooking and electrical fires, including faults in electrical wiring or overloaded sockets, remained the two leading causes of residential fires.
