Blaze tenants 'often argued'

Arguments could frequently be heard in the Shau Kei Wan flat where three people died in yesterday's fire, neighbours said.

Eight people lived in the flat on the first floor of a four-storey building in Sai Wan Ho Street.

The 900-square-foot flat was divided into four bedrooms and the arrested woman occupied a bunk bed in one room.

But neighbours said the woman, 36, who was unemployed and scavenged in rubbish dumps for her living, had failed to pay the $350 monthly rent for the past four months. The other tenants rented bed spaces, except Chan Kam-siu, 43, and her son, Chan Shu-pang, 17, who shared a room. They were injured after leaping from the building to escape the fire.

Detectives were told the woman had frequent disputes with her co-tenants, especially the Chans.

'We believe they were just the sort of squabbles which you can imagine happen in a flat cramped with so many people,' a neighbour said.

Another said: 'The squabbles were often over trivial matters like how dirty the place was becoming.' Alice Lok Ching-fun, who lives in a flat above the gutted unit, said: 'We often heard people in the premises quarrel and sometimes they would call for the police.' The flat's landlord said the woman, who moved in several years ago, had frequent disputes with other tenants.

And during one argument she hit the landlord with an umbrella, neighbours said.

A Ms Lai who lives on the top floor said: 'The woman often behaved very strangely.

'Sometimes I saw her standing alone on the rooftop. I tried to greet her but she would usually ignore me.

'Sometimes she was also seen poking around the garbage dumps at all hours of the night.' The building in which the fire broke out is said to be more than 20 years old, one of the oldest in the neighbourhood.