CO129-614-1 Commission of Inquiry into fire at West Point- report 26-5-1949 - 22-12-1949 — Page 49

28

49

Ignorance of Dangerous Goods Regulations among the Wing On Staff:

56. The failure of the insurance tariff to take account of the law

does not excuse the self-admitted ignorance of the senior godown staff

in regard to the Dangerous Goods Regulations. We regard it as inexcus-

able that a person in Mr. Wilkie Lam's position, a director of the Wing

On Company and directly responsible for the management of its godowns,

should be so ignorant of the regulations concerning the storage of

dangerous goods. He hold a responsible position on the Wing On Godown

staff in 1940 when the Dangerous Goods Regulations were revised, and

ought to have known something of these new regulations. Te feel that

Mr. L. P. Kwok the Chief Manager of the Wing On Company cannot be entirely

freed from the responsibility of allowing such a state of affairs to

exist. There are admittedly certain mitigating circumstances, and these

are discussed in the next Chapter.

Inspection of Wing On Godowns:

57. Godowns No. 2 and No. 5 were officially inspected by the Chief Of-

ficer of the Fire Brigade in April, 1947, as a result of an application

by an owner to store 80 bags of saltpetre (Category 7) in the Wing On

prendises. Mr. McIntosh Smith, accompanied by an interpreter, visited

both godowns on that occasion, but, as Mr. Lam stated that he had no

desire to store the saltpetre, the inspection appears not to have been

directed specifically towards the suitability of the premises for the

storage of dangerous goods. Mr. Smith stated in evidence that Godown

No. 5 was at that time comparatively empty, and it is known that none

of the dangerous goods present at the time of the fire (with the poss-

ible exception of the Calcium Cyanamide, which was not insured) were

then stored in the godown. He had no reason to believe that dangerous

goods were being stored. This is the last occasion as far as we were

able to ascertain on which Godown No. 5 was inspected by the Fire Bri-

gade.

58. Mr. Smith did in fact visit the Wing On Godowns again early in

1948, but on that occasion his visit was of a more casual nature and

only Godown No. 2 was inspected. At the time of this visit the film was

already stored in Godown No. 5, so also were the other dangerous goods