SINGAPORE: The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it responded to nearly 2,200 fires in the first six months of this year.
It is an eight per cent decrease from the nearly 2,400 fires for the same period last year.
The SCDF said this is the lowest figure recorded for a six-month period in more than a decade.
Fires in residential premises contributed to 75 per cent of total fire incidents.
Rubbish fires formed the bulk.
The
SCDF said while the number of rubbish fires continue to be high, there
was a drop of about 56 cases - to 647 cases - for the first six months
of this year as compared to the same period last year.
At commercial premises, 145 fires were recorded - a dip of eight per cent compared to the same period last year.
However, the number of injuries in the first six months rose by 34, to 73 persons.
Three
people died in fire incidents in that period - two from an industrial
fire at Benoi Road, and the third in a residential unit at Marine
Terrace.
The SCDF said Emergency Ambulance Service (EAS) calls remain high.
It responded to 65,256 ambulance calls, an increase of 5.5 per cent over the 61,828 calls for the same period last year.
Emergency calls made up 96 per cent of total calls, while the remaining 1.9 per cent was for non-emergency situations.
False alarms made up another 2.4 per cent of total calls.
There
were also more trauma cases, especially road traffic accidents calls,
an increase of 11.3 per cent compared to the same period last year.
- CNA/cc