Fire_Services_1964-1965 — Page 30

ROCK SLIDE

117. On the 5th September 1964 during Typhoon Ruby at 4 p.m. at Shek Kip Mei Village, Kowloon, the Fire Service were called to an incident when nine members of the public had been buried in their hut by hundreds of tons of rock and earth. Using power tools and a variety of hand tools Fire Service personnel, assisted by members of the C.A.S., recovered three persons alive and three dead. The next day three more bodies were recovered, when, by the use of explosives a thirty ton boulder was broken up.

SHIP AGROUND

118. At the height of Typhoon Ruby on the 5th September 1964, a little after 4 p.m., the S.S. 'Shun Fung,' a cargo vessel of some 7,000 gross tons, was driven from the harbour 'piling' up on the rocks at Cheung Chau Island. High seas breaking to masthead height had driven the crew of 40 to the extreme end of the fore-castle when their plight was reported to the Officer i/c Cheung Chau Fire Station by the Inspector

of Police.

119. Cheung Chau Fire Station is manned by 2 Principal Firemen and 12 other ranks. By what must have been super-human efforts these men proceeded down the cliffside, improvised a breeches buoy and by lashing themselves to rocks spent two hours in conditions of appalling danger and discomfort rescuing every member of the crew.

120. Police personnel and members of the Cheung Chau Life Saving Society provided invaluable assistance by carrying and helping the crew to negotiate the cliffside to the safety of the Fire Station a mile away.

121. For their exceptional work two members of the Fire Service, who for hours at a time were in the raging sea, were awarded Belilios Stars for Bravery. An artistic impression of this astonishing rescue is reproduced in this Report.

BUILDING COLLAPSE

122. Fire Service personnel rescued 7 persons, and Police Officers rescued 2 persons when during a typhoon 9 members of the public were buried in the debris of a collapsed house at Castle Peak on 9th September 1964.

123. On three occasions the first-attending appliances had to be utilized to remove fallen trees from the roadways. Finally, on the

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