Fire breaks out at semi-detached house in Hougang

A fire broke out at a semi-detached house along Park Villas Green in Hougang on Saturday (Oct 3) evening.Residents in the area told AsiaOne they heard what sounded like an explosion at 6.30pm. Asked if anyone had tried to help put out the fire, 18-year-old Cody Tan who stays in a house nearby said the conditions made it difficult to do so. "The fire, which started on the first floor, was quite big and had spread," he explained.Another witness, surnamed Ngiam, recalled seeing thick black smoke billowing out from the house as the fire spread. "It even reached the treeline level," he said."I could see smoke from where I was," said the resident in his 40s, who lives in a low-rise apartment complex about 200 metres away. When AsiaOne reached the scene just after 7.30pm, at least one combined platform ladder used for aerial firefighting, one fire engine, an ambulance, and a support vehicle were present at the scene.