Man who died in Whampoa fire had told wife to check on mum
When a fire broke out after 2am in the three-room HDB flat at Block 76 Lorong Limau, Mr Cai Wan Yuan apparently woke his wife up and told her to check on her mother, who was sleeping in the utility room.
According to a relative, Mr Cai's son was not at home when the fire happened on May 6 as he had taken his wife and daughter on a trip to Malaysia.
The relative told Lianhe Zaobao that Mr Cai, a 60-year-old nasi lemak hawker, was then trapped in the bedroom by the raging fire.
Firefighters forced their way into the unit on the sixth storey and rescued Mr Cai's wife and mother-in-law in the utility room. Mr Cai was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Cai's youngest son Jincheng, 29, told the Chinese daily that the family is eager to find out the cause of the fire and the reason his father was trapped in the bedroom.
He added that his mother and grandmother were discharged after observation at the hospital and that they would be staying with his aunt for the time being. He will also take over his parents' nasi lemak stall at Whampoa Food Centre.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force is still investigating the cause of the fire and has shared that there was no personal mobility device in the flat, whose living room was ravaged by the fire.
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