Five people died trapped in a doctor's surgery after caretakers told them not to leave the building, the inquiry was told. Li Siu-kei, 15, who survived an 11-floor fall while trying to escape, described how smoke began to fill the corridors on the top floor. He had gone there with schoolmate Luk Kin-nam, 15, who had flu. The boys arrived at the 15th-floor clinic at about 4.30 pm and after Kin-nam had been prescribed medicine, they found the corridor filled with thick smoke. They returned to the surgery and told a nurse who called the caretakers' office. 'The nurse told us the caretakers had said not to worry, things would be all right soon,' Siu-kei recalled. The nurse told the boys the caretakers had said patients should not try to leave. The boys and another male patient waited in reception for about five minutes but were then forced to retreat with the nurse to the pharmacy. 'Two minutes later, we were forced further back into the doctor's room where the doctor had just finished diagnosing a woman.' All six took turns to stand at the window and grab gulps of fresh air as the smoke seeping into the room got thicker. 'Then suddenly the electricity went out and we began to panic. The male patient tried to open the door but found it was locked. The doctor said it was an electromagnetic door.' Siu-kei said that as the smoke continued to pour into the room it became more difficult to breathe and the others began to pass out until he realised he was the only one still conscious. He crawled out on to the window and clung to the frame of an air-conditioner. 'I tried my best to hold on by wrapping a piece of cloth around the frame, but after about five minutes the frame was too hot to hold.' He slipped and fell to the fourth-floor podium 35 metres below, injuring his back and legs but remaining conscious. Firemen rescued him from there. He was in hospital for nearly two weeks but has fully recovered. The fire killed 40 and injured 81 in November. The hearing continues today.
