No warning: Family’s heavy wardrobe suddenly fell in a HDB home

SINGAPORE: A family’s living room turned into a disaster zone when a built-in wardrobe suddenly collapsed, raising safety concerns. On Facebook, a user named Jaye Yeo shared their unfortunate experience, stating: “This wasn’t just furniture falling. It was a heavy structure installed inside a living space where our child plays every day. We were extremely lucky no one was injured.” 

As seen in the photos posted, household items, including their child’s toys and several clothes, were scattered in the living room, and with this incident, the family realised that it is really important to properly check if house installations are really completed to avoid injury in the future.

“If you are a homeowner or parent, please take 2 minutes to check this in your home: Are your wardrobes and wall units properly anchored? Do they feel stable when lightly tested? Did anyone ever show you proper installation checks? We never thought something already “installed and completed” could become a safety risk — until this happened,” they post encouraged.  

With this, netizens shared their thoughts and opinions in the comments section. One netizen observed: “Looks like the cabinets were not bolted properly to the wall….. didn’t see a proper mounting bracket either!” 

“This is a pole system. Not built-in wardrobes. cheap and flimsy. In every trade, workmanship and safety is top priority, price should be secondary, not primary concern,” another netizen remarked. 

Some believe that the cause of this is the humidity in Singapore, while others blame the workers, stating, “Now most of the jobs are done by low common sense workers. Best daily go check during renovation.” 

However, one netizen confirmed that what has been shared was not to blame the contractors of the house and emphasised that the furniture was installed by the family themselves. 

“This post is a self-reflection and a lesson learnt for those that are planning to do the same. Just learn from their mistakes,” the post declared.