'I had a little bit of hope': All he has left of his brother who died in 1972 Robinsons fire is his watch

Mr Sivalingam Sundaresan with a newspaper article about the Robinson’s fire and a watch that belonged to his brother Sivasundaram, who died in the fire.SINGAPORE – When he heard on the radio that there was a big fire at Robinsons department store in Raffles Place, Mr Sivalingam Sundaresan immediately rushed to the scene.

Mr Sivalingam and his father later held a private ceremony at Choa Chu Kang cemetery. His mother was in India then.“I don’t even dare to look at sometimes. Can you imagine the suffering he and the others went through and the pain? I try to forget it,” said Mr Sivalingam, who is no longer in touch with his brother’s wife and two children.

Ms Chan, then 24 and working in the dress material department, recalled the first sign of trouble was when the lights went off suddenly at about 9.50am. To process the customer’s payment, Mr Tan, who was a part-timer, took the lift from the ground floor, where the department was located, to Robinsons’ main office on the third floor.

He said: “As we left the building, the smoke was grey but it later turned black. Some of the staff who tried to put out the fire could not go in.”

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