The scale of the destruction sparked an emergency project to swiftly construct accommodation and resettle the people affected by the disaster.

[2] Coupled with the rise in the number of Chinese immigrants escaping from strife such as the Malayan Emergency, this created a huge demand for wooden housing built illegally on the fringes of the city-centre by contractors who sought to profit from the situation.

[6] Yet, the high rents, small size and acute shortage of Singapore Improvement Trust flats meant that they were not popular with residents of urban kampongs.

[8] Relocations often had to be done under police escort; the city ultimately had to retract its demolition policy in 1955 and designated some kampongs as "attap" areas.

These included improperly disposed rubbish, burning of joss sticks and paper in religious rituals and the use of firewood for cooking.

[10] Volunteer firefighting squads, consisting of kampong residents and aided by the fire brigade and political parties governing the area, were formed.

[1] The inferno soon engulfed the kampongs situated along Beo Lane, including Bukit Ho Swee, up until Havelock Road.

[4] 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.

[18] An hour later, the fledgling local military forces and British Army personnel were also called in to assist the police with maintaining order.

[4] 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.

[1] Due to widespread looting in the aftermath of the fire, the army, police and the Gurkha Contingent blocked off access to the disaster site and imposed a partial curfew in the area.

[4] Inmates of Changi, Pulau Senang and Outram Prisons also helped to raise funds and prepared meals for the victims of the Bukit Ho Swee fire.

[4] This relief effort was later described by the Social Welfare Department as "the greatest challenge ever to be met in its fifteen-year-old span of existence".

The committee, headed by Minister for Labour and Law Kenneth Michael Byrne, collected donations from both the government sources and the general public.

[4] In the aftermath of the Bukit Ho Swee fire, the government gave priority to plans to relocate victims to permanent flats, as it deemed conditions at relief centres unsanitary.

[4] During a special sitting of the Legislative Assembly, the government passed a motion to acquire the entire Bukit Ho Swee area to construct low-cost housing for the victims.

[4] On 4 June 1961, ten days after the disaster, the victims of the fire began relocating from the temporary relief shelters to their new one- or two-room flats.

[25] On 28 May, Nanyang Siang Pau reported that the Criminal Investigation Department had questioned 2 residents living near the epicenter of the fire.

[26] On 9 June, the police had arrested a suspect, but he was subsequently released due to the lack of concrete evidence supporting the eyewitness testimonies.

[28] Purported evidence cited in support of this theory included the fact that even though the fire took place on a public holiday when many residents were home, the death toll remained relatively low.

[30] However, the death of Lim Kim San in 2006 brought the debate over the cause of the Bukit Ho Swee fire to the public sphere.

[32] The sheer speed of construction at Bukit Ho Swee, with 3.5 housing units completed per day, demonstrated to the population that the party was able to deliver.

[32] The political capital it gained as a result enabled the party-led government to rebuild other "black areas", kampongs which are similar to the one in Bukit Ho Swee.

[32] The PAP leveraged on the Bukit Ho Swee fire and the subsequent emergency construction of public housing for its political purposes.

[37] The 29-episode drama revolved around the themes of neighbourliness and social danger, depicting a love story juxtaposed against a society where gangsters harass the socially-marginalised residents of the village.