Pets perish after fire rips through Hong Kong flat, with 200 people evacuated from building
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.
The spokesman said an initial investigation suggested a short circuit was the suspected cause of the fire.
Kwai Tsui Estate is managed by the Housing Authority, which introduced a marking scheme in 2003 covering 28 misdeeds. Each carries different penalty points according to the degree of seriousness involved.
When a public housing household has accrued 16 points within two years, its tenancy is liable to termination.
The authority said on its website that tenants who kept an animal, bird or livestock inside leased premises without prior consent would be allotted five penalty points under the marking scheme without warning.
The Post has contacted the Housing Authority for comment.
