light and dislodge some of the brickwork below. This stage is most clearly described by quoting the words of an eyewitness, Mr. H. B. Gould, Works Superintendent of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Mr. Gould said:
"I noticed a small flame licking out from under the balcony....
It was
a bright orange colour and quite a lazy flame. It merely trickled slowly out from under the balcony. I was just about to go to the telephone when a flame...... shot by the window. This flame was also bright orange in colour, and it was accompanied by a noise rather like a very strong wind or rushing water. There were a lot of what appeared to be balls of fire mixed up in this flame. The duration of the flame was, I should say, about 10 seconds. The nearest description I can give of it would be that it was like a blow lamp flame. It lasted for about 10 seconds and then it cleared.”
25. All witnesses are agreed upon the enormous heat that accompanied this initial flame; in fact the front windows of a tramcar some 250 feet away were cracked by the heat. The flame penetrated right across the road and set alight to a lorry in the Gas Works' yard. Mr. A. Thomson, a Waterworks Inspector, whose home is on a level well above that of the tenements, was able to state that he saw the flame rise higher than the level of his house. This means that it rose some 280 feet into the air. Witnesses varied in their estimate of duration of this great flame, but it continued probably not longer than 30 seconds and then receded. It had by then set the whole of the western end of the tenements firmly ablaze. Although we were unable to obtain any direct evidence, there is little doubt that the same flame penetrated in an opposite direction into godown No. 2 and set some of the contents of that godown on fire. The colour of the flame and the comparatively mild explosion are characteristic of com- bustion of celluloid film. There is no doubt therefore, that this flame that witnesses saw was due to the burning of celluloid film scrap which was subsequently found to have been stored in the godown behind the place where the flame escaped into the street.
26. The burst of flame almost simultaneously enveloped every floor at the western end of the tenements, and the majority of the victims of the fire must have lost their lives within these first few minutes. 113 recognizable bodies were recovered from the staircases on either side of where the film was stored or from the rooms adjacent to these staircases. Only a very few were found elsewhere in flats at the eastern end. The evidence of survivors indicated that there appeared to be flames in every staircase, and that wherever they ran their way was blocked. Those who lived in the eastern end were most fortunate, as on discovery that their way out to the street was blocked, they fled to the third floor flats and the roof of Nos. 353 and 351, where the fire was least intense. Undoubtedly some of the initial flame reached even into rooms at this end as some were found scorched or even completely burnt out, while adjoining rooms were hardly damaged by fire. Once the initial flaming had died down, the fire assumed a more normal aspect, abnormal only in the very large area ablaze such a short time after the outbreak.
Arrival of the Fire Brigade and Rescue Work:
27. The fire alarm was given almost immediately on the outbreak by policemen in the vicinity. Police from the Eastern Station close by and No. 3 appliance from the Western Station were on the scene within two or three minutes of the alarm. No. 9 fire appliance which had a 100′ turntable ladder and No. 16 appliance from the Central Fire Station were probably in the fire area by 0817. No. 1 appliance from Central followed shortly afterwards. Rescue operations with the ladder were commenced immediately, and some 60 persons escaped by this means from the 3rd and 4th floors of No. 351.
28. During this period also a small number of persons escaped down the steps at the rear leading into Whitty Street, or by jumping into the scavenging lane and climb- ing over the iron grille at its entrance. This area must have been on fire at a very early stage as some burnt bodies were found on the steps, and these bodies were probably those of persons who were unable to get through the locked wooden door. This door must have been in some way burnt through shortly afterwards, as a few people later escaped through it.
29. All Ambulances of the Fire Brigade and of the Medical Department and Tung Wah Hospitals were mobilized rapidly at the scene of the fire and casualties were removed to the Queen Mary Hospital. The ambulance service appears to have worked well.