CO129-614-1 Commission of Inquiry into fire at West Point- report 26-5-1949 - 22-12-1949 — Page 30

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There

majority of the flats were partitioned into individual cubicles.

were five staircases giving direct access to all floors except in the case of No. 367, the most westerly house, whose staircase went only to the first floor. Ingress to and egress from the floors above this could only be gained by going through the rear of the various floors of No. 365 and using the staircase common to that house and No. 363. Such a system would not have been approved by the Building Authority if incor- porated in the plans of a new building. The stairs of all the houses stopped short at the fourth floor, and did not continue to an exit on the roof, which would be a necessary provision for approval of plans

under the present Buildings Ordinance. There were fire escapes, that is

to say steep iron ladders communicating between the verandahs of each

building, but these escapes did not extend to the street, the alternate mode of egress from the first floor being through the back yard on that floor and into the scavenging lane. The fire escape ladders were covered

by small iron hatches which could be easily lifted or removed, provided

of course that there was nothing piled on top of them. In the crowded

and congested state of the buildings, such was unlikely to be the case, as tenants no doubt deliberately covered up the hatches as a precaution

against thieving. When we visited the premises the majority of these

hatches were closed,

21. At the rear of the tenements there was a yard on the first floor with a passage-way behind it, about 4 feet wide leading to a flight of

steps which gave direct access to Whitty Street. Half way up the steps

was a wooden door, the keys of which were kept in a box on the first

floor of No. 359. The door was usually kept locked during the day, and was undoubtedly looked at the time of the fire, Entry to the scavenging lane between the tenements and godown No. 2 was through a grilled iron gate, also normally locked, set in an iron framework topped by outward and downward projecting spikes. The western end of the lane was bricked

The lane itself was six feet in width.

up.

22.

Plans B and C provide elevations of the buildings from the seafront

and from Whitty Street. Plan D is a plan of the first floor of Nos. 351-

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