CO129-614-1 Commission of Inquiry into fire at West Point- report 26-5-1949 - 22-12-1949 — Page 22

CHAPTER I

1.

THE WING ON FIRE AND THE APPOINTMENT OF THE

COMMISSION.

22

Outbreak of the Fire:

Just after 8 o'clock on the morning of 22nd September 1948, the

Fire Brigade and the Police Force were notified of an outbreak of fire

in a range of tenement buildings in the neighbourhood of the Des Vocux

Road Wost entrance to the Tai Fing Theatre. The whole block of build-

ings, Nos. 351 to 367 Des Voeux Road West, was rapidly enveloped in

thick black smoke, with the Western end furiously ablaze. The initial

outbreak of fire had been accompanied by a series of explosions of suf'-

ficient force to shoot a number of large iron drums and bales of raw

rubber into and across the road, together with a tongue of flame clearly

emanating from a hole in the top of a bricked up doorway on the ground

floor of No. 363. The ground floor of the tenements formed part of a

godown belonging to the Wing On Company.

Action by the Fire Brigade:

break.

2. The first fire appliance to reach the scene came from the Western

Fire Station and arrived very soon after the first report of the out-

It was

soon followed by other appliances from the Central Fire

Station. As it was quickly realised that a number of persons were

trapped by the fire in the upper stories of the tenements, the Fire Bri-

gado first turned its attention to the rescue of a number of persons

who had collected on the 3rd floor of the most casterly tenement, which

was not so firmly alight as the romainder of the block. All but one of

these persons were rescued quickly and efficiently by escape ladder;

this person lost his foothold on the ladder, slipped and was killed.

About 60 persons were rescued in this way. On the western side of the

building a man and woman were also ruscued by jumping some 60 feet from

the third floor of the tenements into a jumping sheet held by firemen

and policemen, A little later Loting Deputy Chief Officer Tiplady and

Divisional Officer Browne using the long escape ladder with the aid of

a fireman rescued another man and woman from the same floor. The re-

moval of casualties and injured by ambulance completed rescue operations.