Hong Kong News
Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Saturday, Feb 22, 2025
Real, Diverse, Unbiased.
High-seas fears as fire breaks out
More than 300 passengers on a vessel heading to Tung Ping Chau scrambled to put on life jackets after a fire broke out yesterday, a video filmed on board showed.
Footage filmed by a passenger showed a chaotic scene.
"People are crazily scrambling for life jackets," the passenger said.
The Tsui Wah Ferry set sail from Ma Liu Shui in Tai Po for the easternmost outlying island of Hong Kong at about 10am.
A fire broke out during the trip and was put out at 1pm.
A total of 318 passengers and two crew members were taken to Tung Ping Chau before being returned to Ma Liu Shui. No one was injured.
At Ma Liu Shui, passengers told of how they felt they were being left in the dark as they weren't given instructions.
One of them, Chow, said: "The ship was quite full. Passengers on the lower floor went upstairs after seeing smoke. We started putting on life jackets half an hour later. The crew members didn't ask us to do so.
"Around an hour later, when we all boarded another ferry, I noticed that there was smoke coming from the engine room."
She questioned why the two crew members did not inform passengers of the fire initially.
"I was on the upper deck, and I did not see the fire extinguishers there being used to douse the fire," she said.
The passengers decided to put on life jackets as they felt they could be in danger, she noted. A child who sat on the upper deck said three marine police vessels arrived about half an hour after the fire broke out.
"It smelled like burned plastic," he said.
His mother said the police should have allowed children to be evacuated first among the passengers.
Tsui Wah Ferry Service deployed another ferry to pick up stranded passengers and crew members to Tung Ping Chau.
Fire services said the fire was started by a short-circuit in the engine room.
The incident came a day after a 47-year-old man died following a late-night dive at Tung Ping Chau on Saturday.
The man, Kyut, was declared dead at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan.
At 10.53 pm on Saturday, police received a report that the man, who went diving with three friends in Tung Ping Chau, was unconscious.
He was airlifted to Eastern Hospital, where he was certified dead.
"People are crazily scrambling for life jackets," the passenger said.
The Tsui Wah Ferry set sail from Ma Liu Shui in Tai Po for the easternmost outlying island of Hong Kong at about 10am.
A fire broke out during the trip and was put out at 1pm.
A total of 318 passengers and two crew members were taken to Tung Ping Chau before being returned to Ma Liu Shui. No one was injured.
At Ma Liu Shui, passengers told of how they felt they were being left in the dark as they weren't given instructions.
One of them, Chow, said: "The ship was quite full. Passengers on the lower floor went upstairs after seeing smoke. We started putting on life jackets half an hour later. The crew members didn't ask us to do so.
"Around an hour later, when we all boarded another ferry, I noticed that there was smoke coming from the engine room."
She questioned why the two crew members did not inform passengers of the fire initially.
"I was on the upper deck, and I did not see the fire extinguishers there being used to douse the fire," she said.
The passengers decided to put on life jackets as they felt they could be in danger, she noted. A child who sat on the upper deck said three marine police vessels arrived about half an hour after the fire broke out.
"It smelled like burned plastic," he said.
His mother said the police should have allowed children to be evacuated first among the passengers.
Tsui Wah Ferry Service deployed another ferry to pick up stranded passengers and crew members to Tung Ping Chau.
Fire services said the fire was started by a short-circuit in the engine room.
The incident came a day after a 47-year-old man died following a late-night dive at Tung Ping Chau on Saturday.
The man, Kyut, was declared dead at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan.
At 10.53 pm on Saturday, police received a report that the man, who went diving with three friends in Tung Ping Chau, was unconscious.
He was airlifted to Eastern Hospital, where he was certified dead.
