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Bukit Ho Swee CC

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Bukit Ho Swee Estate or Taman Bukit Ho Swee is an housing estate that was rebuilded after an huge fire engulfed it in 1962. On 25 May 1961, Hari Raya Haji holiday, fire broke out at 3.20 pm and spreaded rapidly from Tiong Bahru Road to Delta Circus, aided by strong winds. When the fire was finally put out, four people had died. Some 100 acres of land were destroyed and 16 thousand people were made homeless and penniless.

The Bukit Ho Swee fire is a reminder how insecure life was for large number of Singaporeans in the 1960s. It also reminds us how much our quality of life has improved in the years since independence. Bukit Ho Swee then housed the poorest Singaporeans; it had no proper sanitary facilities, nor water and electricity supply; rubbish was simply dumped on the streets and the ditches which traversed the area stank. To make ends meet, many squatters had to rear some animals. Because of the unhygienic conditions, infectious diseases were common.

To house the displaced Singaporeans, modern high-rise flats have to be quickly built. Those who did not resettle in the modern flats in Queenstown were all given a roof over their heads nine months later when blocks of flats in Taman Bukit Ho Swee. In all, the Housing and Development Board built 12,000 units in 9 months or average of 3.5 units per day. With the rapid spread of modern flats, Singaporeans have to adapt to a new way of life which ultimately helped to improve their quality of life.