Pat Sin Leng Wildfire 1996

Infobox News event


caption=
date= start date|1996|02|10
time=
place=New Territories, Hong Kong
casualties1=5 dead
casualties2=13 injured

Pat Sin Leng wildfire in 1996 was a wildfire that happened in Pat Sin Leng, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong on 10 February, 1996. It was a five-alarm wildfire. The disaster killed three students and two teachers of Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club Fung Yiu King Memorial Secondary School and injured another 13 students.

Hong Kong Government has built a "Spring Breeze Pavilion." on Pat Sin Leng to commemorate sacrifice of the two teachers in the tragedy.

After the disaster, the area was no longer suitable for cultivation of the soil, and causing soil erosion.

Background events

On 10 February, 1996, 49 students of Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club Fung Yiu King Memorial Secondary School led by five teachers to participate in the "gold leg" Hiking activities that jointly organised by Geographic Society in their school and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme (now called the Hong Kong Award for Young People). They started from the Agriculture and Fisheries Department Plover Cove Country Park Visitor Centre to Pat Sin Leng, Section 9 and 10 of Wilson Trail, the Hok Tau, and finally, Fanling.

It was a extremely dry day with only 31% humidity, the Hong Kong Observatory issued the red fire warning, meaning the fire risk was extremely high.

At about 11:20, when teachers and students was hiking at 150 meters away from Xiangu peak, some students found the bushes caught fire, and the fire became out of control. At first,the fire spread uphill but later it spread anywhere. The downhill road was blocked, so everyone was forced to run up to the peak to escape. A group of 32 students were successful escaped and return to starting point to look for help; but another group of 18 people trapped in Ma Liu Ya (Monkey Cliff), Teacher Zhou Qi and Teacher Wang Xiumei tried to help students escape but finally killed in fire, injured students lay on the edge of cliff and wait for rescue.

Rescue operation

The Hong Kong Fire Service department, Agriculture and Fisheries Department (AFD), and the Civil Aid Service (CAS) sent out more than 200 people to start the search and rescue operations at 12:23. The Government Flying Service (GFS) sent two helicopters to help fight fire. After the rescuer found victims, they provided first aid on the scene. Seriously injured victims were rushed to hospital by helicopters from the scene. First group of victims were sent to Tai Po Jockey Club Clinic. Ten seriously injured victims were transferred to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin later. An injured female patient whose 70% of the skin was burnt were rushed to the intensive care unit for advance treatment.

GFS rescue accident

A rare accident happened during the Government Flying Service's helicopter rescue operation. When crew members were carrying a helicopter's winch sling, they spotted two injured victims. According to the Code of Practice, they fastened their safety belt then prepared to pull the victims on the helicopter. However, pilot can't see his crew members because his sight was blocked by thick smoke. Therefore,the helicopter only took its crew back, but two victims fell on the ground because they didn't fasten their safety-belt before the helicopter raised up.

Later, the helicopter returned to rescue two injured persons. They thought that they were the victims who fell on the ground during previous rescue, but they were wrong. The next day, rescuers found the last missing person and found out he was one of the victim who fell to the ground.

=Casualties and da

The wildfire burnt 40 over hours, at 11:00 of the following day, all fires were extinguished.
* Casualties: 5 (teacher Zhou Qi, Wang Xiumei and three students)
* Injured: 13
* Burnt area: 20 hectares

Post-disaster review

* Coroner's Court held hearings in May 1996. Coroner believed that the fire was caused by smoking and some students carrying lighters. The court also criticized the teacher-student ratio was 1 to 12, worse than 1 to 10 standard. The teacher did not have appropriate telecommunication devices.
* Some criticized that ambulances have to be sent victim area to nearest A&E, then transferred patients to the better equipment hospital. That made ambulances at least have to run four kilometers more, that delayed the treatment of the patients. Additionally, Tai Po Jockey Club Clinic, the only medical center in Tai Po district at that time, lack of abilities to handling a mass casualties disaster.
* Other criticized that Hong Kong Government's emergency Co-ordination Centre did not operate in this incident, so rescuers did not co-operate effectively.

References

Newspapers
* 1. "Sing Tao Daily" on 11 February, 1996
* 2. "Sing Tao Daily" on 12 February, 1996
* 3. "Sing Tao Daily" on 14 February, 1996