‘She saved our home…’ — Maid’s employer thanks her for ‘putting out raging fire just in time,’ with her ‘incredible courage’ and firefighting skills

SINGAPORE: A kitchen fire broke out in a condominium on Feb 5, and it spread within seconds. Fortunately, it did not end in complete disaster because one brave woman stayed calm and acted fast.

The fire started around 6.30 p.m. after cooking. The family was not home. A domestic helper left the cooker hood running to clear the smoke, then went to her room. Minutes later, she smelled something burning. Homeowner Lester Tan then shared the incident in a Facebook post dated Feb 6.

“Just the second day after Li Chun, the ‘Fire Horse’ decided to gallop straight into my kitchen last night,” Tan wrote. He added that he had read many reports about Personal Mobility Device (PMD) fires and never expected one from a cooker hood.

The fire began at the exhaust fan. It was small at first. Then it grew fast. “That small flame suddenly erupted into a fierce blaze all the way to the ceiling, likely fueled by the oil trapped in the filters,” Tan said.

White smoke poured into the living room. A new smoke detector went off. A neighbour rushed over and told the helper to leave the unit. But she chose to stay.

“Luckily, she remembered the fire drill I had conducted with her and the kids,” Tan wrote, and because of that training, the helper took action quickly, grabbed a fire extinguisher near the stove and put out the flames. “She saved our home,” he said, expressing his appreciation towards his helper.

The timing mattered. Tan said the kitchen could have been fully engulfed within three minutes, and another five minutes could have spread the fire to the rest of the flat. So early preparation made the difference.

Tan said he bought multiple fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, fire blankets, and smoke masks after reading past fire reports. He also ran fire drills at home. They practised crawling under smoke, finding exits, and using the fire extinguishers. That planning paid off when it mattered most now.

Tan suspected the cause was oil buildup in the cooker hood. He said friction in the exhaust fan may have sparked the fire, with grease filters fueling it. A contractor later confirmed it was an exhaust fan failure. There was an added twist to this incident. A replacement charcoal filter had arrived that same morning. The fire broke out before it could be installed.

With the Chinese New Year just days away, Tan said the mood could have changed overnight. Instead, the family returned to a home still standing. With that, he shared the message to keep fire extinguishers at home and to make sure everyone knows how to use them.

In his own words, he ended his post with the advice to always “Stay paranoid. Stay safe!”

Read related: Employer’s daughter thanks her maid because “she taught me life skills that I wouldn’t have learnt if not through her”