Bukit Ho Swee Fire
Coordinates: 1°17′16.5″N 103°49′43.4″E / 1.287917°N 103.828722°E
The Bukit Ho Swee Fire was a conflagration that broke out in the squatter settlement of Bukit Ho Swee, Singapore on 25 May 1961. This fire killed 2 people and injured another 54. It also destroyed more than 2,800 houses around Bukit Ho Swee area, leaving around 16,000 people homeless. The cause of this fire was never established. The Bukit Ho Swee fire was the biggest outbreak of fire in Singapore's history.
The scale of the destruction of property sparked an emergency project to construct and resettle the people made homeless by this disaster. This first public housing project, led by the newly formed Housing and Development Board, is considered a pivotal point in the development of public housing of Singapore.
After World War 2, many low-income Chinese families were forced to move out of Singapore's city centre. Coupled with the rise in the number of Chinese immigrants escaping from strife such as the Malayan Emergency, this created a huge demand for wooden housing built illegally on the fringes of the city-centre by contractors who sought to profit from the situation. As such, during the 1950s, urban kampongs became commonplace on the Singaporean landscape. One such kampong is located in Bukit Ho Swee. This kampong, seen by the People's Action Party as "an insanitary, congested and dangerous squatter area", saw its population increase drastically from 2,772 people in 1948 to 19,017 people in 1957.
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