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Warning after 46 injured in blaze

Alison Smith

Half the occupants of a Kwai Chung high-rise were taken to hospital - two critically injured - when an unprotected television cable billowed smoke through flats yesterday.

Forty-six people aged from four months to 88 years suffered smoke inhalation in a blaze the Fire Services Department said was a warning to owners of old buildings.

Fifteen of the injured were admitted to Yan Chai Hospital in stable condition. Two seriously injured women, aged 88 and 47, were in intensive care.

The other 29 injured were sent to Princess Margaret Hospital in stable condition.

Victims waved to firefighters for help from their windows as smoke billowed from the cable that runs the length of the 24-storey Tak Cheong Building at 1001 Kwai Chung Road.

New Territories South divisional officer Wong Kin-cheong said rubbish caught fire in a narrow corridor on the eighth floor and quickly swept towards a window on to the outside cable.

Thick smoke poured into apartments nearest the burning cable and into the narrow corridors, causing many of the 80 occupants to panic as they tried to escape.

The densely populated private building is thought to be at least 20 years old, built before a fire safety code of practice recommended television cables be housed in fireproof ducts.

Building Services Department spokesman Terence Yu Chi-wai said owners of old buildings would be expected to comply with the current Code of Practice if they wanted to install any new cables now.

But even for new buildings it was only a recommendation, not a law, he said.

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