HDB Block-Wide Fire Alarms to Provide Earlier Warning, Especially to Less Mobile Seniors

Question:

Mr Shawn Loh: To ask the Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs whether the Ministry will reconsider HDB block-wide fire alarms to provide earlier warning, especially to less mobile seniors, given HDB fires where evacuations have been required despite flats being designed to contain fire and given that Household Fire Alarm Devices (HFADs) do not adequately warn the rest of the block to evacuate.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. We have focused on providing early warning of a fire to the occupants of individual flats via the installation of individual home fire alarm devices (HFADs). We do not see a need for block-wide central fire alarm systems for two reasons:

(a) First, a block-wide evacuation is seldom required. When responding to a high-rise residential fire, the SCDF typically only evacuates occupants on the floor affected by the fire, as well as those residing in the two floors above. This is because HDB blocks are designed such that each HDB flat is a fire compartment, to reduce the spread of fire.

(b) Second, common activities such as cooking or fogging could trigger a central fire alarm system. Over time, this may drive unintended but dangerous behaviours among the residents, such as disconnecting the HFAD from the central fire alarm system, or having them removed altogether, or even disregarding the alarms.