A DEADLY blast in a Bukit Merah neighbourhood, believed to have been caused by a gas leak, has left 80-year-old Chan Soo Ngan wheelchair bound and given her a phobia about cooking.

She spent a month in hospital recovering from burns and smoke inhalation and another month in a home for the aged.

Mr Chan Fook Seng, her neighbour in Block 105 in whose flat the blast happened last August, died in hospital a few days after the fiery explosion.

The blast was so strong it blew out the front wall of his one-room rental home. That front wall trapped Madam Chan in her home until she was rescued.

Madam Chan still lives alone but has moved to another in a one-room flat in the neighbourhood.

'I used to cook before the accident, but now I'm afraid of using the stove,' she said in Cantonese.

She now has her meals at the Sarah Seniors Activity Centre on the second floor of a neighbouring block; on weekends, volunteers go to her flat with prepared meals.

To ensure such blasts do not happen again, grassroots leaders from Tanjong Pagar GRC spent Sunday morning spreading the message of fire safety to the elderly in the area.

ExxonMobil and City Gas representatives were also on hand to offer safety tips on using gas stoves and checking for leaks.

The Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar ward Koo Tsai Kee said the accident made it clear that some senior citizens were unaware about how to use their gas burners safely.

Such fire safety-awareness sessions will now be held regularly. Residents have been taught how to check for gas leaks, prevent them and what to do if there is one, he said.

About two thirds of the 4,796 fires last year broke out in homes, going by the annual fire and ambulance statistics released last week.