Fifty years have passed since the great fire at Bukit Ho Swee in Singapore left 16,000 people homeless, gave rise to a national emergency and led to the first big public housing project in the country: a seminal event in the making of modern Singapore. Loh Kah Seng grew up in one-room rental flats in the estate built after the fire, and in this book he draws on oral history interviews, official records and media reports to describe daily life in squatter communities and how people coped with the hazard posed by fires. Reviewed by Nathan Bullock.
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