A 69-year-old man is fighting for his life in hospital on Tuesday after being injured in an alleged arson attack, which took more than 120 firefighters about three hours to put out, in his village house in Hong Kong.
Police arrested his co-tenant, 67, who was accused of setting alight the victim with flammable solution during a dispute in the Tseung Kwan O village on Monday night.
Twenty-seven fire engines and four ambulances were called to Ma Yau Tong Village when the blaze broke out in the tin-sheeted shed shortly after 8.30pm.
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It was upgraded to the No 3 alarm at 8.56pm. The severity of blazes in the city is graded on a scale of one to five, with the latter the most serious.
Ho Chun-pong, acting senior divisional officer (Kowloon East) of the Fire Services Department, said the blaze was upgraded because of the rapid and unusual way it spread, and that the site was far away from water sources.
“Firefighters had to lay and connect hosepipes to draw water about 300 metres away,” he said.
The two male tenants, aged 67 and 69, had run out of the blazing hut before emergency personnel arrived.
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Firefighters used two water jets and mobilised four rescue teams equipped with breathing apparatus to battle the blaze. The flames were largely extinguished by 11.45pm.
The 69-year-old man suffered burns to his head, arms and legs and was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei for treatment. He was in a critical condition as of Tuesday morning.
“The investigation suggested the two men had a dispute over a dog one of them kept at the house,” a police source said.
“In the heat of the argument, the 69-year-old man was doused with flammable liquid and set alight.”
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Police arrested the 67-year-old man on suspicion of wounding. As of midday on Tuesday, the suspect, who was unhurt in the incident, was still being held for questioning and had not been charged.
Detectives from the Tseung Kwan O district crime squad are handling the case.
In the first 10 months of this year, police handled 259 reports of arson across the city, down 36.8 per cent from 410 cases in the same period the year before.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Hong Kong protests: 6 acquitted of arson charges after judge rules there is no case to answer
- Hong Kong police arrest 19-year-old student over Government House arson attack
- Hong Kong police arrest two suspected of inciting others via social media to commit murder, arson targeting officers
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