Bangladeshi construction worker Shakil Mohammad was at work at River Valley Road in Singapore when he heard screams next door.

Seeing a shophouse on fire and children standing on the ledge on the third floor, he rushed to help them.

Speaking to The Straits Times a day after the incident on Wednesday, Shakil, 35, said, "The children wanted to jump. I told them, 'Don't jump! I will help you'."

Then, he and several of his fellow workers took a ladder from the construction site to get to them.

Tomato Cooking School, which runs cooking lessons and camps for children, is located in the shophouse.

Shakil, who has been working in Singapore since 2018, was second on the ladder, with another worker above him grabbing children and passing them to him.

Construction workers Shakil Mohammad (right) and Ramesh Kumar helped to save some of the children from the shophouse fire on April 8. Photo: The Straits Times

He said: "There was one girl, when she was passed to me, her eyes were closed. I held her in my arms, but she was not moving.

"The fire was so hot. I would have no regrets if I died that day. I just needed to save the children."

Shakil thinks they saved 10 of them.

Choking up, he added, "There were three more children inside, and I wanted to go inside to save them, but I couldn't. The fire was too intense. I cannot explain how [painful] my heart is."

The fire left a 10-year-old girl dead and 21 others injured.

She died after being taken to the hospital, said the police. The 22 casualties included six adults aged between 23 and 55 and 16 children aged between six and 10.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the girl who died was an Australian.

Recounting the ordeal of that day, Zainal Zin, another worker, said when he arrived at the furniture store where he worked, he saw some children with burns running out crying, while others were carried out unconscious by firefighters.

Some children sat by the roadside, looking shell-shocked.

Zainal, 56, said: "I'll never forget the look on their faces, and I cannot get the scene out of my head.

"One girl was lifeless as a firefighter carried her out. Her eyes were closed. Paramedics were rushing to do CPR on her.

"Another boy, who looked like he was around four years old, had his head and arms wrapped in bandages, and he was clinging tightly to a paramedic."

Members of the public, including construction workers, used metal scaffolding and a ladder to rescue those trapped on the third-storey ledge.

Zainal said, "It was a terrible thing to witness. This girl had burns all over her left arm. When she turned around, I saw burns on the left side of her face, too.

"I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about the children. I can't imagine how their parents must feel."

Dani Rahmat, 25, owner of a nearby barber shop, praised the migrant workers. He said: "I think they were super selfless. What they did was really inspiring."

At around 12:50pm on April 9, SCDF officers arrived for investigations.

Several bouquets of flowers were left at the scene, which has been cordoned off.

SCDF spokesperson said it is contacting those who helped evacuate the victims to present them with the SCDF Community Lifesaver Award.

The girl who died in the blaze is the fourth fire fatality in Singapore in 2025.

In January, a family of three died after a Hougang five-room flat caught fire.

According to SCDF's annual statistics, five people died in fires in 2024, up from three in 2023.

Copyright: The Straits Times / Asia News Network