Staff stopped to insert their time cards before escaping the blazing Garley Building, the inquiry heard yesterday.
And management ordered the public entrances of the Chinese Arts and Crafts store to be locked for security reasons leaving staff to troop out through a rear entrance.
Lau Wing-chun, a store manager, said he had not told customers to leave until he had established the fire could not be put out.
He had been at a meeting on the second floor when told a fire had started in the lift lobby outside the conference room.
Mr Lau rushed into the lobby and saw smoke coming from behind roller shutters between shop premises and the lift lobby.
'The situation in the area outside lift No 4 was serious and a roll of carton paper was ablaze,' he said.
Mr Lau and other staff tried to stop the blaze for about 10 minutes using a fire extinguisher and hose but retreated to the first floor when they could not. 'The situation was becoming critical so I asked another manager to evacuate the customers and female staff,' he said.
