People still remember the Pat Sin Leng hill fire on February 10, 1996, when two teachers lost their lives while trying to save students. Three students also died in the tragedy and 13 suffered burns, leaving some in critical condition.
The tragedy occurred when four teachers and 40 students from Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club Fung Yiu King Memorial Secondary School embarked on a school hike in the hills of Sha Tin.
Many people were concerned about the tragedy, which revealed that the Prince of Wales Hospital's burns unit did not have sufficient resources to cope with the victims.
'It happened in a scale of disaster,' recalled Li Mi-mai, a nursing officer of the burns unit in 1996 and now a ward manager at the hospital.
'We spent time borrowing equipment from other departments ... if we had enough equipment in the ward, the doctors could have gained useful information about the victims immediately,' she said.
That year, Operation Santa Claus brought in HK$4.2 million for the unit - more than HK$1 million above the target of HK$3 million - enabling it to buy 86 items, including low-air mattresses and electric beds, which offer great pain relief to patients.
