He called his team and told them about the fire and instructed them to have extinguishers on stand-by should the blaze spread. After a while, they decided to evacuate for safety.
He then went to the front of the unit, where he saw the children sitting on the ledge.
He proceeded to help support the scaffolding as the workers passed the kids down a human chain from the third floor.
“The adults cleared the kids out first … (a) lady at the top was shouting to tell us that there were more kids, about four or five, still stuck inside.”
Mr Chan also said there was no explosion, and that the first sign of the fire was the thick black smoke.
“The smoke was very thick, and it looked like a war zone, like what you see only on the TV,” he told CNA.
In total, the first responders saved about 10 children, before the SCDF and police arrived and took over with professional equipment, said Mr Chan.
PARENTS INFORMED OF INCIDENT
The mother of a four-year-old girl who attended a class at Newtonshow said she received a call at 1pm from her daughter’s teacher, telling her that her child’s class was safe.
“I thought it was weird, because they just said there was an incident but didn’t elaborate, and didn’t mention that there was a fire,” said the woman, who only wanted to be known as Ms Fu.
Speaking in Mandarin, she added that her daughter was part of a class that was on a field trip to the Science Centre.
From her home near UE Square, she first saw many public buses lined up and cordons set up at about 11am.
She later left her home at 12pm and noticed that traffic was fully diverted, but was still not aware of what had happened.
