Six injured after fire breaks out in subdivided flat in Yau Ma Tei
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 01 December, 2013, 2:28pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 01 December, 2013, 2:28pm
Stuart Lau [email protected]
The injured were being treated at Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: SCMP
Six people were injured in a fire in a subdivided flat in Yau Ma Tei on Sunday morning.
Some residents including two children were forced to escape to a canopy where they were rescued by firefighters using an aerial ladder.
The accident broke out at 8.34am on the first floor of Man Yuen Building on Man Wai Street, the fire services department said.
Some residents rushed to a first-floor canopy and scaffolding works to escape from the fire in the 49-year-old building that houses both residential units and hotels. The whole building was undergoing repair work and was covered with nets and scaffolding.
The smoke was so strong. There was no fire alarm. I woke up as others shouted.
A man, who helped two young girls escape to the canopy, shouted to firefighters as they were being rescued: “The smoke is so strong inside. Their father is still inside.”
“I was a little scared,” said one of the girls after they were rescued.
Another resident said: “The smoke was so strong. There was no fire alarm. I woke up as others shouted.”
A woman was said to have rescued her rabbit and left her daughter with her domestic helper when fleeing the building.
Fifty people escaped by themselves and firefighters evacuated 33 others, said Yiu Yau-pon, acting chief of Kowloon Fire Command, South Division. The injured were being treated in Kwong Wah Hospital.
Eleven fire vehicles had been deployed to the fire, which was extinguished in about an hour.
Yiu said the large number of residents had added to the difficulty of the rescue.
“The cause of the fire is still under investigation. We will transfer the case of subdivided units to the Buildings Department for follow-up action,” he said.
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