Today marks 60 years since the biggest firestorm in Singapore's history. Even though the firestorm was called the Bukit Ho Swee Inferno, the inferno actually started in Kampong Tiong Bahru. It was just that the wind conditions and the hot air caused the firestorm to spread northwards into the Bukit Ho Swee squatter settlement. The inferno was eventually denied from spreading further north by a block of flats in Delta Estate. It took 22 fire trucks and several hours to eventually extinguish the inferno. Despite the size of the inferno, the death toll was just four people. That's a very low number regarding the inferno's size, and that is excluding the chickens and pigs that were burnt alive in the inferno.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) constructed apartments to rehouse the homeless people shortly after the inferno. To this day, Bukit Ho Swee HDB Estate stands as a monument to the memory of those who perished or were made homeless by the inferno on that fateful day.
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