Firefighters took seven hours to contain a blaze that ripped through the ground floor of a commercial building in Central yesterday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of office workers.
Two firemen suffered minor injuries.
The fire was detected when smoke was seen billowing from beneath the shutter of a shop in the Prosperous Building, Des Voeux Road, at 7.24 am. The building managers had been ordered by the Fire Services Department to have a sprinkler system installed by next year.
Firemen used welders to cut open the shutters and evacuated hundreds of workers from the building and nearby offices as the blaze was upgraded to a third-alarm fire at 8.37am. Fires are rated on a scale of one to five according to their seriousness.
Parts of Des Voeux Road had to be sealed off as thick smoke blanketed the area and people on their way to work were kept away from their offices.
Four teams of firefighters wearing breathing apparatus finally contained the fire at 1.41pm.