Fire victim Connie's fatal decision

EACH day as she left for university "Connie" Zhang would hug her uncle and wish him a good day. But she didn't make it to uni last week.

Bankstown fire

EACH day as she left home for university Ping Kang "Connie" Zhang would hug her uncle and wish him a good day.

Last Thursday morning, as the 20-year-old science student left the Punchbowl home she shared with Jon Jiang and his family, she promised him she would see him that night for dinner.

But for reasons Mr Jiang will never know, Connie didn't make it to the University of Sydney that fateful day.

Instead, she walked around the corner to the Bankstown home of her new boyfriend, where she spent the day with his flatmates - until a horror fire ripped through the fifth-floor apartment, forcing Connie to leap to her death.

Mr Jiang yesterday recalled the devastating moment he realised the thick black smoke billowing in the distance, then wafting over his house, had claimed the life of his only niece.

"I saw the smoke but I didn't think too much," Mr Jiang said.

"And I hear the police and ambulance. Then Connie's boyfriend came here to tell me what happened ... I didn't believe it was right, not Connie," he said, shaking his head.

Connie, an only child, grew up with her parents in Sydney's south and went to school at Menai Girls High. She topped the class in multiple subjects, and was on the HSC Distinguished Achievers List for 2010.

A school staff member yesterday remembered Connie as "an exceptionally bright girl".

Mr Jiang said his niece was awarded a scholarship to the University of Sydney, where she was in her second year of studying a combined science and nursing degree.

He said her father, a mechanic, and mother who works in a Punchbowl restaurant, are heartbroken by their only child's death. They spent yesterday at Rookwood Cemetery planning her funeral service to be held next week.

A clearer picture of the terrifying moments before Connie and survivor Yinuo Jiang, 27, jumped has emerged after Ms Jiang gained consciousness on Tuesday and gave police a formal statement.

Ms Jiang said when the fire broke out, she and Connie locked themselves in the bedroom of the fifth-floor apartment because they "panicked".

Police sources said it was only smoke getting into the room but, when the pair opened the window to relieve the heat, it gave the fire oxygen and created an "explosion-like" situation.

"That's when we understand they had no option but to jump," a police source said.

Ms Jiang remains in Liverpool Hospital in a stable condition, after surviving the 15m jump.

A young man at the unit when the fire started but who managed to escape, Jianwei "Jason" Zeng, has refused to be interviewed by police.

While there is no suggestion Mr Zeng had any involvement with the cause of the fire, police said they were keen to speak to him to "put all the pieces of the puzzle together".

It is understood an airconditioning unit and a microwave, on the balcony of the apartment when the fire started, are still being closely looked at by investigators.

Residents of the unit block have still not been allowed to return home but were yesterday allowed to go back to their units to grab possessions.

One by one, the residents were escorted into the smoky building for just 10 minutes.