2 teenagers and 1 fireman hospitalised after fire breaks out at Sham Shui Po industrial building

A pair of teenaged siblings and one firefighter have been hospitalised as a result of a third-alarm fire which took over nine hours to extinguish.

At around 11pm yesterday evening, the Fire Services Department was notified of a fire at a subdivided storage unit on the eighth floor of Cheong Fat Industrial Building on Un Chau Street, reports Oriental Daily.

The blaze was upgraded to a third-alarm fire at 12:19am. Fires are graded on a scale of one to five in Hong Kong, with five being the most serious.

Two teenaged siblings, aged 14 and 16, were hospitalised for smoke inhalation just before 1am. Their father later told Oriental Daily that the children lived in “cubicles” on the eighth floor with their mother and step-father.

Firefighters deployed two aerial ladders, five jets and eight breathing apparatus teams to fight the blaze, which was successfully put out at 8:18am today.

At 4:20am, an injured fireman stationed at Wong Tai Sin was hospitalised at Caritas Medical Centre, Apple Daily reports.

Mini storage facilities were advertised on the third, fourth, fifth and eighth floors of the building, which was not fitted with sprinklers. The cause of the fire is being investigated and all hospitalised parties are reported to be in stable condition.

The incident echoes the deadly Ngau Tau Kok fire which left the city reeling just two weeks ago. Also igniting in a mini storage unit, it took over 108 hours to put out.

Two firemen, 30-year-old Thomas Cheung and 37-year-old Samuel Hui, tragically lost their lives.

The blaze, which is Hong Kong’s longest-running fire in over 20 years, has triggered discussion in the city over the need for more stringent regulations in such storage facilities, as well as the need for sprinkler systems in older buildings.

 


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