Shek Kip Mei
It was not a Merry Christmas that year. On 24th December 1953 at around 9pm, a big fire disaster broke out at the Shek
Kip Mei squatter villages which burnt until the next day, demolishing the homes of 50,000 people. Mr. Au, who survived
the fire, on that night more than half a century ago, can still remember it vividly. “In fact, I was not home that night, I was
out playing. When I heard that Shek Kip Mei was on fire, I rushed back home. I found that my parents have fled, so I took
some clothing and I also ran away...”, Uncle Au said the fires at that time were extremely hot, like many furnaces bearing
down on him, and everywhere he looked he saw fires starting!
In those days, adjacent huts would share one wooden wall
between them, in order to conserve materials, so fires were passed from hut to hut easily. Most huts would also use the
less expensive bitumen sheets to seal their roofs, and although these bitumen felt sheets were water-resistant, when they
burned they added fuel to the flames. The bitumen sheets were light, so that after catching fire they were blown to other
huts and quickly spread the fire. Moreover, the squatter areas were very crowded and blocked-up; fire engines could
not reach the burning areas and the fire got out of hand rapidly.
