Pets perish after fire rips through Hong Kong flat, with 200 people evacuated from building
- Tenant’s younger brother went to flat to feed pets and smoke billowed out when he opened door, insider says
- Short circuit suspected to have caused fire, which killed dog, two cats, three birds and marten
More than 200 people were evacuated from a public housing block in Hong Kong in the early hours of Thursday after a fire ripped through a flat, killing a dog, two cats, three birds and a marten.
The animals, along with another dog and two cats which survived, were being kept in the 11th-floor flat in Bik Tsui House at Kwai Tsui Estate in Kwai Chung when the blaze broke out at around 12.25am, police said.
A source familiar with the case said the flat’s tenant was at work at the time, and his younger brother, 28, went to the premises to feed the pets.
“When [the younger brother] opened the door to the flat, dense smoke billowed out. He then called police,” the insider said.
Emergency personnel were sent to the scene and more than 200 residents were evacuated from the building, police said. Firefighters used a water jet to put out the blaze at 12.51am.
A police spokesman said the younger brother inhaled smoke but did not require hospital treatment.
He said a dog and two cats were found alive in the flat, but the other pets died in the blaze. Staff from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals collected all of them.