Woman found dead after Yuen Long flat fire

A 56-year-old woman was found dead inside a Yuen Long flat after firefighters put out a third-alarm blaze in the building on Sunday night.

The city’s Fire Services Department was alerted at 5.21pm when the fire broke out on the 10th floor in block five of Emerald Green residential estate on Shap Pat Heung Road.

Firefighters arrived four minutes later. At 6.01pm, the department upgraded the incident’s status to alarm No?3 – on a scale of one to five, with five being the most severe – to allocate more resources.

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Firefighters used a turntable ladder to free three residents stranded on a balcony from a flat next to the one on fire. Another 20 were helped to leave the building from a number of floors.

Two residents suffered from smoke inhalation and were taken to Pok Oi Hospital.

The fire was mostly put out by 7.08pm, the department said.

Inside the 56-square metre flat that was on fire, the body of the woman was found in a corridor linking a room to the living room.

Her identity has not yet been confirmed.

More than 70 firefighters and ambulance crew members with 19 department vehicles were deployed, the department said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

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