Question:Mr Darryl David: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) for each year in the past five years, how many fires in HDB flats are a result of excessive hoarding; (b) whether this number been increasing over the past five years; and (c) whether there are plans to enhance the existing inter-agency efforts between SCDF and HDB to mitigate fire hazards associated with hoarding in HDB flats.
Answer:
Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:
1. The incidence of fires involving hoarding has remained low.
Between 2020 and 2024, the number of fires in each year that involved hoarding was
zero, three, six, nine and five respectively. As a comparison, in each of these five years,
there were about 800 to 900 Housing and Development Board (HDB) fires annually.
2. The Hoarding Management Core Group, led by the Municipal Services Office,
coordinates inter-agency efforts to resolve severe hoarding cases. The cases are assessed
and prioritised based on whether there is threat to public health and safety. Where there
are fire safety, public health or animal welfare risks, the Singapore Civil Defence Force
(SCDF), National Environment Agency or National Parks Board will intervene with their
regulatory levers. Agencies also work with community partners to engage the hoarders
and their families to declutter.
3. In particular, where there is severe cluttering obstructing emergency egress, HDB
coordinates with SCDF to use SCDF’s fire safety levers to improve safety within the unit, such as ensuring that there is a passageway for the occupants to leave the unit during an
emergency.
4. The Ministry of National Development, the Ministry of Social and Family
Development, and other key partners have also recently launched an Alliance for Action
called the New Environment Action Team (NEAT). NEAT will bring together
Government agencies, social service agencies, community groups, and private
organisations to identify hoarding cases early and provide more rounded support to
hoarders, and relief to their neighbours. HDB and SCDF are members of NEAT.
