Firemen defend Ap Lei Chau operation

Firefighters deployed to a blaze on the 17th storey of an Ap Lei Chau residential block on Thursday raised a ladder from a fire engine only 45 minutes after the alarm was sounded, the Fire Services Department admitted yesterday.

The early-morning blaze, which broke out in a flat at block 10 of South Horizons, injured seven people. A nine-year-old girl and her mother remained in serious condition last night.

The crew, made up of 162 firefighters in 28 fire engines, spent three hours dousing the flames after realising the building's hydrant system was out of order. Angry residents blamed them for taking too long to get the blaze under control and reach them.

A senior officer defended the operation, saying the faulty hydrants meant they had to concentrate on pumping water from the ground outside the block.

Yeung Chung-hau, assistant director of fire services, said they received a call at 6.12am and arrived at the scene in four minutes.

They initially fought the blaze from inside, Yeung said. The aerial ladder was raised only at about 7am, because "normally, there is no need to shoot water at the fire from outside the building", he told RTHK.