James was eagerly on his way to school with his mother when he experienced a frightening incident. It was the fire that broke out at Bukit Ho Swee. To him, it was really not a fun and exciting experience at all. He recollects his story below.

On that fateful day, thick clouds of smoke covered the sky. A strong burning smell hit my nose. My jaws dropped open as the orange flames engulfed the attap huts and scorched them into ashes. The intense heat hurt my skin but I stood rooted to the ground.

My mother then grabbed my arm. We quickly fled from the fire. People around us were running too. Luckily, everyone remained compassionate as the younger and stronger people carried the older and weaker ones.

Then, a car stopped in front of us. The driver was my cousin. She told us that she was there to help us. We let out a sigh of relief and asked her to drive us to the school.

When we reached it, we saw that it had already been turned into an evacuation centre. Policemen were busy organising the crowd and recording statements from some victims. Doctors were tending to the wounds of the many victims while volunteers were distributing drinks to soothe them.

Shortly, we managed to find a place to sit down. A volunteer passed us some hot drinks. I sipped mine, grateful for the kind acts I had received.