PUBLISHED ONNovember 04, 2026 4:33 AMBYKoh Xing YingA woman who became frustrated after her former colleague failed to answer the door was fined for setting fire to joss paper outside the colleague's flat in Bukit Batok.
Tong Huanling, 34, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to one charge of causing a fire and was fined $3,000 on Monday (Nov 2).
According to court documents, Tong went to her former colleague's home at Block 293A, Bukit Batok Street 21, on the night of Jan 29 this year to look for her.
However, her former colleague was overseas at the time, leaving only her husband and six-year-old daughter at home.
After receiving no response despite knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell, Tong waited outside the unit for about an hour.
Noticing that the lights inside the unit were on but no one answered the door, Tong believed that her former colleague was deliberately avoiding her.
She then retrieved a cardboard box containing joss paper from the ground floor of the HDB block and placed it near the shoe rack outside the unit's iron gate.
At around 11pm, she set the joss paper alight and took photographs of the fire, which she sent to her former colleague before knocking on the door again.
When no one answered the door, Tong kicked over a wooden chair in anger, causing it to topple onto the burning cardboard box, which fuelled the fire further.
Soon after, her former colleague's husband spotted flames and thick smoke outside the unit and immediately called the police.
Police officers arrived shortly afterwards and found that two neighbours who had smelled smoke had already helped to extinguish the fire.
Tong was arrested and charged in court on Jan 30. She was released on bail on Feb 10.
Following the incident, Tong offered compensation and a written apology, but both were rejected by her former colleague's husband, according to Shin Min Daily News.
Photographs submitted to the court showed that the floor outside the unit was charred, with ash residue on the gate and a wooden chair badly burned.
During sentencing, Tong's lawyer reportedly pleaded for leniency, highlighting that Tong had sought psychiatric help and was diagnosed with adjustment disorder and is receiving treatment.
The prosecution argued that despite causing only $25 in property damage, the fire posed a significant safety risk as it occurred in a residential area, reported Shin Min Daily News.
The judge also noted that it was fortunate the blaze had not spread further, which could have led to more serious consequences.
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