Taxi driver and bus capt lauded for helping to put out car fire
SBS Transit bus captain Jiang Hong and ComfortDelgro taxi driver Ong Kong Poh being handed the Public Spiritedness Award by SCDF's Colonel Alan Chow. Photo: Illiyin Anuwar
SINGAPORE — After he helped a motorist put out a car fire, bus captain Jiang Hong found himself worrying about the traffic building up with his bus in the way, and his waiting passengers.
To his relief, his passengers, who did not object when he requested permission to stop and help the driver, did not make a fuss. Some even gave him a thumbs-up when they later alighted.
The Sichuan-born bus captain, who has been with SBS Transit for one and a half years, and Mr Ong Kong Poh, a ComfortDelgro taxi driver who also stopped to help, were given the Public Spiritedness Award by the Singapore Civil Defence Force on Friday (June 10).
On Monday (June 6), the two had stopped their vehicles to assist a man whose car had caught on fire, by passing him fire extinguishers from their vehicles to fight the fire, until SCDF personnel arrived to put it out completely.
Mr Jiang, 39, said he was surprised to receive this award as he was not expecting it, saying he was simply trying to help. “I just thought it was something dangerous and I had to do something since I had a bigger fire extinguisher,” he added.
Mr Ong, 48, who has been driving a taxi for four years, added that the fire safety training he received back in his National Service days, as well as his short stint as a bus captain readied him for the incident.
SCDF’s Colonel Alan Chow said: “I think what Mr Jiang and Mr Ong did was very civic-minded and those are the right actions to be taken by civic-minded individuals.
Mr Ong Kong Poh, the ComfortDelgro taxi driver was on his way to Holland Village at Farrer Road on Monday (June 6) when he saw a stationery car in the centre lane with thick white smoke billowing out of its bonnet. He stopped his taxi on the left lane and took out a company-provided fire extinguisher and ran toward the car and offered the driver the extinguisher. He said that the car owner looked stressed and “helpless” and was on the phone with SCDF.
