construct their attap houses and the presence of oil and petrol in homes caused the fire to spread quickly. The inferno soon engulfed the kampongs situated along Beo Lane, including Bukit Ho Swee, up until Havelock Road. This area, the most densely populated and developed area of the whole kampong, was where the fire inflicted the most significant damage. The fire spread to the Delta Circus area, where Ganges Avenue was sufficiently wide enough to act as a firebreak that prevented the fire from engulfing the government-built housing flats at Delta Estate. As the fire occurred on the Hari Raya Haji public holiday, many members of the firefighting and police force had to be recalled to their duties through radio broadcasts from 5 pm onwards. The problem was made worse by the fact that many of the firefighters were Malay-Muslims who had taken leave to celebrate the festival. An hour later, the fledgling local military forces and British Army personnel were also called in to assist the police with maintaining order. In total, around 180 firemen, 20 officers and 22 fire engines were deployed to fight the fire, while nearly 1,000 army personnel were deployed to aid in crowd-control. Firefighters faced many challenges in their attempts to contain the inferno. Initially, the water pressure from the fire hydrants was too low. The congested layout of the housing settlements around the area and the presence of curious on-lookers hampered the movements of the firefighters and slowed down the process of evacuation and cordoning of the affected area. Further complicating the firefighters' mission was the fact that processing plants and mills in Bukit Ho Swee had also caught on fire and exploded, causing toxic chemicals such as sulphuric acid to be released into the air. The Bukit Ho Swee fire peaked around 8 pm; by then, 22 fire engines had been deployed. The fire was eventually extinguished around Delta Circle at around 10pm. Even after the flames were extinguished, the debris continued smouldering for much of the night. Death and destruction Despite the scale of the fire, only four people were killed. However, the scale of destruction was massive as the fire guttered an area of approximately 100 acres. This included a school, a coffee mill, two oil mills, two junk shops, two tyre shops, three timber yards and three workshops. In addition, 2,800 homes were destroyed, leaving 15,694 people homeless. Given