WORST fires on record in Hong Kong:

1918: An estimated 600 people are killed and 400 injured at the Happy

Valley racecourse during the Lunar New Year holiday when a grandstand

collapses and knocks over food stalls, setting bamboo matting ablaze.

1929: A blaze in the Prince Edward Hotel, Central, kills nine.

1947: Canton steamer S S Sai On is consumed by fire on the Hong Kong

dockside, killing 149.

1953: On Christmas Day, the Shek Kip Mei squatter village burns down,

leaving more than 60,000 homeless. There were no records of exact

numbers living there and the death toll is unknown.

1971: Fire sweeps through the Jumbo Restaurant in Aberdeen harbour,

killing 13 and injuring 42.

1972: Cruise liner Queen Elizabeth, being used as a floating

university, catches fire and sinks in Victoria Harbour with no

casualties.

1981: A fire at a North Point wig factory kills 11 workers.

1984: Fire rages through the Blue Box Industrial Building in Hing Wo

Street, injuring 44.

1986: Fire guts Chu Ku Tsai village during the Lunar New Year holiday,

leaving 2,000 homeless.

1986: Fourteen people are killed in a blaze at a garment factory in

the Kwai Chung port district.

1986: A Christmas blaze guts 150 vessels moored in Aberdeen typhoon

shelter, leaving more than 1,700 boat dwellers homeless and virtually

penniless. Only two were injured.

1990: Triad gangsters fire-bomb a restaurant and mahjong parlour in

Hung Hom, killing six and injuring 24.

1990: Six die and 50 are injured in a fire in a "cage home" slum

hostel in Sham Shui Po.

1992: A blaze at the Shek Kong Vietnamese refugee detention centre

kills 26 and injures 126.

1994: A fire-bomb at the Shek Kip Mei branch of a Hong Kong bank kills

12 bank employees.

1996: A February dry season brush fire traps schoolchildren hiking at

Pat Sin Range in the New Territories. Three pupils and two teachers

die, while many suffer life-long burn injuries.

1996: On 20 November the Garley Building on Nathan Road turns into a

towering inferno, killing 39 people and injuring 81. It was the worst

blaze in a building on record in the British colony.

1997: A 25 January blaze in a karaoke bar kills 15 people in Tsim Sha

Tsui. Police suspect arson. Reuter

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