Why Singapore Apartments Have Bomb Shelters

My Singapore apartment had a household shelter: thick walls, a massive steel door and two ventilation openings. The surprising part, to me, was the address. We lived on the twentieth floor.

I had always pictured a bomb shelter underground. This one was a room inside the apartment.

Singapore’s civil-defence shelter system includes household shelters within homes and storey shelters shared on a floor. SCDF describes their purpose as protection against weapon effects during a national emergency. Being upstairs is part of the design, not evidence that someone forgot what a shelter is for.

That distinction explained the room better than my original mental picture of a bunker. It was built into the home, close to the people it was intended to protect.

The room even came with a small fold-down bed niche. We used the shelter as a storeroom. Its everyday use did not make it an ordinary room to remodel: SCDF publishes the requirements for the shelter and its protective features.

Most days, that formidable steel door was guarding our shelves.