Jammed radios, heavy smoke and the large number of people waiting to be saved hindered efforts to rescue the two firemen who were killed on Sunday in Mong Kok in the city's worst blaze in a decade, firemen and officials said.
Altogether, four people died during the alarm No 5 fire at Cornwall Court, Nathan Road.
A fireman who had arrived at the scene before Siu Wing-fong and Chan Siu-lung, the two firemen who were found unconscious on the roof of the 15-storey building and later died of smoke inhalation, said the situation during the fire was more complicated than people could imagine.
'We did receive a message that they needed help. But then at the scene there were too many people waiting to be rescued and there was a frequency jam of our radio receivers,' the fireman, who gave his surname as Chan, said during a phone-in RTHK programme.
When firefighters went to save their colleagues, they struggled to find them, said Mr Chan, who worked at Mong Kok fire station with the two firemen.
'But then due to the jam, it was impossible to communicate with them. There was heavy smoke and we could not find their exact location.
