SINGAPORE - A fire related to a personal mobility device (PMD) broke out outside an 11th floor Housing Board flat in Hougang on Monday evening (Nov 4).

The fire broke out at about 5pm at Block 927, Hougang Street 91, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said in a statement on their Facebook page.

The fire involved a PMD along the corridor and was extinguished by SCDF with buckets of water.

Two residents of the flat in a state of shock were assessed by an SCDF paramedic but they later refused to be taken to the hospital.

SCDF said preliminary investigations showed that the source of the fire was electrical in origin from a PMD that did not meet a set of safety requirements, called the UL2272 standard. The PMD was charging at the time of the fire.

The UL2272 standard includes safety requirements covering the electrical drive train system of PMDs, such as the battery system.

In the first half of this year, there were 49 fires related to PMDs, an average of about two a week.

In the worst of these cases, home owner Goh Keng Soon, 40, died in hospital on July 20, two days after he was rescued unconscious from a burning flat in Bukit Batok. The blaze was linked to three e-scooters found burnt in the unit.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) encourages all PMD owners to use UL2272 certified devices and to look out the UL2272 certification marks when purchasing a PMD.

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Owners of non-UL2272-certified PMDs are encouraged to dispose of their devices at designated points as soon as possible.

LTA is facilitating this process at 213 spots across the island at no cost to e-scooter owners. This will last six months from Sept 23 this year to March 31 next year, with those who do so before the end of the year eligible for a $100 incentive.

E-scooter owners can refer to LTA's website for more information on the UL2272 standard and the free disposal scheme.