SINGAPORE: There's been a spike in the number of
cases involving unauthorised change in the use of
premises.
Latest statistics from the Singapore Civil Defence
Force show that the number of notices and summons issued for such
cases went up by 36 per cent in the first six months of this year,
compared to the same period last year.
Unauthorised change in the use of premises is a fire
safety offence.
Forty per cent of the more than 860 notice of fire safety offences
were for changes of residential property, to workers' dormitories
or backpacker's hostels.
Assistant director of SCDF's Operations Department, Lieutenant
Colonel (LTC) Daniel Seet, said: "Our primary concern is in the
area of the fire safety provisions laid out in the original plans
which may be inadequate for the new purposes or intent. So this is
something that we require the property owner to come back to the
SCDF for an approval process, so we can enforce this
properly."
Overall, the number of fires the SCDF responded to in the first six
months of this year registered an all-time low.
SCDF responded to some 2,200 fires from January to June this year -
the lowest number recorded for the period, in more than 10
years.
Fires from rubbish and discarded items continue to be the leading
cause of a blaze.
The number of non-emergency calls also dropped to an all-time low,
by about 11 per cent.
SCDF attributed this to better public awareness on the
non-emergency ambulance hotline.
- CNA/cc