Being a community first responder, university student preps own firefighting tools

Lianhe Zaobao, 5 Dec 2024, 当急救员守护社区 大学生自备灭火工具

(translation)

This university student started as a community first responder at the age of 16. Whenever he receives a notification, he would bring his own fire extinguisher, hose lock and safety hammer with him. A few days ago, while he was extinguishing a fire in a recycling bin, he was burnt by the molten plastic that splashed on his body.

Lukas Ho (21), a first-year student at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), told this reporter that when he was in Secondary 4, as a member of the National Police Cadet Corps, he was exposed to first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) courses. He later downloaded the myResponder application and has been a community first responder for five years.

“I downloaded the app without giving it a second thought. It’s very fulfilling to serve the community and to help people living in the estate.”

Lukas’ mother, Ms Xie (57 years old), told reporters that at 11:10 am on November 24, when her son was preparing to go to school, he suddenly received a notification from the app stating that a recycling bin on the ground floor of Block 396, Tampines Avenue 7 had caught fire.

“I was having a meal at home and was about to send my son to school when I heard the cell phone ring. While debating whether to go to class or not, he said he would go put out the fire first. Then he went out with the fire extinguishers.”

Ms Xie said that the fire was about 1.5 kilometers away from her home, so she drove her son there. When they arrived, they found that the fire was quite fierce. Her son tried to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher, but due to the limited length of the hose pipe, he still could not put out the fire after using two fire extinguishers. As he also brought his own water hose lock, he unlocked the central refuse chute to access the faucet and used a bucket filled with water to put out the fire.

Burns and blisters on hands and feet

According to the footage taken by Ms Xie, Lukas, who was wearing casual clothes and slippers at the time, was using a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, and burning materials splashed onto his feet.

Lukas said that when he was putting out the fire, he did not expect that the molten plastic from the recycling bin to splash onto his fingers, and another larger piece splashed onto his feet. As the plastic was still melting, it caused him great pain.

The blisters and wounds on Lukas’ fingers and feet are still healing.