ST : Pay us for fire damage: Tenants

Apr 25, 2010

Pay us for fire damage: Tenants

People's Park Complex tenants want compensation from building management for damaged stores

By Irene Tham

Sooty air-conditioning ducts, faulty computers, stained ceiling boards and drenched carpets and documents.

These were the effects of last Wednesday's fire at People's Park Complex that caused a mass evacuation.

Several tenants are considering seeking compensation for the damage caused by the fire, which started in a reportedly illegal storeroom on the fifth floor of the building.

'We are seriously considering the necessary claims for compensation,' said Mr S. H. Almenoar, 66, a partner at law firm R Ramason & Almenoar.

It is located on the fourth floor of the building.

Water used to put out the fire dripped from the ceiling and soaked a few stacks of case files and damaged two computers - now fixed - belonging to the law firm.

New ceiling boards that the firm installed a few months ago were also stained with brown water marks, although the flooded fifth floor was drained last Thursday.

Another fourth-floor tenant, a Chinese physician, had to close his shop last Thursday as the carpet in his clinic was soaked by water dripping from the ceiling.

'My insurance firm said I cannot claim from them because the fire was not on my floor. I hope to get some compensation from the building management,' said Mr Yee Heng Huat, 49.

It cost him about $1,000 to close his shop for more than a day and deal with the soaked carpet.

A Chinese herbal shop owner, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Tan, was assessing the damage to her goods in a storeroom on the fourth floor when The Sunday Times visited last Thursday.

'The building must be upgraded. The building management must do something about the damage,' said Mrs Tan, who is in her 70s.

At Five Stars Tours, located on the fifth floor where the fire broke out, it was business as usual last Thursday as the office was intact.

'Our insurance company is handling the claims for the costs involved in cleaning the ventilation ducts,' said Miss Chris Tay, deputy general manager at Five Stars.

Mr Wilson Goh, complex manager at SCMS Property Management, which manages People's Park Complex, could not be reached for comment at press time.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) had said the owner did not have its approval to convert the fifth-floor carpark space into storage rooms or to build the stores.

'This is a serious fire safety violation and SCDF will follow up to take action against the offender,' it said in a statement.

Firefighters were alerted to the fire by a call at about 3.30pm. There was confusion as to whether there was a fire although two alarms had gone off in the space of 15 minutes.

Even when flames engulfed part of the fifth floor, many tenants continued serving customers instead of evacuating. This was because there was no announcement over the public address system.

An employee of a travel agency on the fourth floor told The Sunday Times that the building management gave conflicting reports.

'When the first fire alarm rang, my colleague called the management office to check but was told there was no cause for alarm,' said the travel agency staff, who declined to be named.

'We started to evacuate when we saw people leaving the complex.'

The complex was closed only at about 4pm.

There were no injuries and the blaze was put out in 45 minutes.

itham@sph.com.sg