Coroner urges authorities to license Hong Kong’s mini-storage industry to ensure compliance with fire safety, after firefighters’ deaths in 2016 blaze
- Two firefighters died battling one of the city’s longest-running blazes in a storage facility in Ngau Tau Kok
- Out of 1,222 premises inspected as of April 30 this year, a total of 3,222 common fire hazards were found in 959 of these facilities
Hong Kong’s coroner has urged authorities to issue licences to mini-storage premises to ensure compliance with fire safety rules after he returned a verdict of death by misadventure for two firefighters who died after battling an inferno at an industrial building nearly six years ago.
Coroner Philip Wong Wai-kuen on Tuesday ruled that poor communication within the fire service and a lack of fire safety awareness among those operating and managing storage cubicles contributed to the fatal blaze at Amoycan Industrial Centre that raged from June 21 to June 25, 2016.
The fourth-alarm fire in Ngau Tau Kok was the longest-running blaze at an industrial premises in Hong Kong history, having burned for 108 hours and 16 minutes. It was the seventh-longest of any fire in the city.
Senior Station Officer Thomas Cheung, 30, and Senior Fireman Samuel Hui Chi-kit, 37, were killed on the first and third day of the operation, respectively, as they battled the flames inside the SC Storage facility on the third floor of the then 66-year-old industrial complex.
The Coroner’s Court heard the fire might have been caused by a split-type air conditioner at the mini-warehouse which experienced a short circuit at around 10am on June 21. Metal sheets separating the 200 cubicles coupled with flammable items stored inside some of the storage spaces accelerated the fire’s spread.
A manager discovered the fire at 10.30am but did not immediately try to put it out as he did not know how to use an extinguisher. Instead of calling police, he contacted the facility’s owner, Kevin Shee, for advice.
Firefighters arrived at the scene after 11am, with the blaze escalating into a third-alarm fire shortly after noon, and a fourth-alarm one in the evening. The severity of fires is graded on a scale of one to five, with the latter the most serious.
