Board of Inquiry to be convened to probe death of NSF firefighter Edward Go: Faishal

SINGAPORE – A Board of Inquiry (BOI) will be convened to investigate the death of 19-year-old full-time national serviceman Edward Go, said Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim.

Sergeant (1) Go had died after battling a blaze in a Henderson Road rental flat on Dec 8. He was the first firefighter to die during a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) operation.

Responding to Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok) on Friday, Associate Professor Faishal said police are still investigating the incident.

Details of their investigations will be passed on to the Coroner once they have been completed, he added.

The Coroner will consider the police’s investigations, and make a finding on what led to SGT(1) Go’s death, he said. 

The BOI will be held after the Coroner’s inquiry, so that it can consider both the police and Coroner’s findings in its probe, Prof Faishal said.

Asked by Mr Murali why the BOI will only be convened after the Coroner’s inquiry, Prof Faishal replied: “We think that it is better for the BOI to look at all these findings and make its assessment.”

He said the BOI will submit a final report to the Minister for Home Affairs, and this will be shared with the public at an appropriate juncture. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last convened a BOI in May 2018, to review the death of SCDF NSF CPL Kok Yuen Chin, who was found unconscious at the bottom of the Tuas View Fire Station’s pump well.

Following the 2018 review, the BOI recommended measures for SCDF to take. A MHA spokesman told The Straits Times that this included the decommissioning of pump wells at fire stations, which has since been completed.