XN000022-1996-11-21 — Page 22

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Tsim Sha Tsui fire round-up

The Fire Services Department has set up two special teams to investigate respectively the cause of the No. 5 alarm fire at Garley Building in Tsim Sha Tsui as well as the reasons why it had spread so fast and caused so many casualties.

Speaking at the press conference on the tragedy this (Thursday) afternoon, the Director of Fire Services, Mr Peter Cheung, expressed his deepest sympathy and extended condolences to the families of the fire victims.

The fire was eventually put out at 1.47 pm today after firemen fought the blaze in extremely difficult conditions for more than 21 hours.

Mr Cheung confirmed that, after thorough searches by fire personnel on the whole building, no further casualties were found so far. The death toll of the fire now stands at 39 (comprising 38 people who had been reported missing and the 36-year-old senior fireman Liu Chi Hung, who died during the fire fighting operation).

Over 50 fire engines and some 300 firemen were deployed to combat the blaze with ambulances shuttling more than 100 times between hospitals and the fire scene for taking casualties to hospitals.

Mr Cheung noted that six fire engines were still on standby at the scene to assist in follow-up forensic searches by the Police.

The Police has set up a Disaster Victims Identification Unit and a Casualty Enquiry Unit to help family members of the fire victims to identify the dead bodies and to answer public enquiries.

Appeal to the victims' family members to provide information to facilitate police identification has also been made.

So far, six out of 39 bodies of the fire victims have been identified by family members. The identities of the rest are still unknown.

Up to 4 pm today, more than 630 public enquiries, including 370 on missing persons, were received by the Casualties Enquiry Unit.

The Buildings Department has also set up two special teams to carry out technical investigations on the building.