ENG-1954 — Page 141

This image is unavailable for access via the Network due to copyright restrictions. To view the image, please contact library staff for a printed copy of the copyright work.

The most disastrous fire in Hong Kong's history broke out in the squatter village of flames swept through 45 acres and, within a matter of three hours, almost 60,000 some little idea of its scale. From the street on the left, right up into the foothills, empty shells.

Of the wooden huts which surrounded them scarcely a visible trace

Just ten months later the lower photograph was taken. In place of desolation and spread) a brand-new village has arisen..

orderly rows of fireproof buildings were devised by the Public Works Department for speedy erection in the minimum village are Hong Kong's long-term answer to the resettlement problem.

Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, on Christmas Day 1953, Fanned by a strong wind the people were homeless. The upper photograph, taken three days after the fire, gives there is scarcely a building unscathed. The stone buildings still standing are mainly remains.

the disorderly squalor which preceded the fire (and which indeed helped its rapid in properly laid-out streets. The long two-storey buildings in foreground and centre space of time. The big multi-storey blocks which surround the perimeter of the

This image is unavailable for access via the Network due to copyright restrictions. To view the image, please contact library staff for a printed copy of the copyright work.