Student died falling from window to escape blaze

A WOMAN told an inquest yesterday how she leaped from the fifth floor of a Bankstown tower to escape a fire. Confined to a wheelchair, she recounted the terrifying details of the September 2012 tragedy which cost her friend’s life.

2012 tragedy: The blazing flames at the Bankstown apartment block.

A woman who survived a fall from a fifth floor unit to escape a deadly Sydney fire that killed her friend described her terror to a coronial inquest.

Yinuo “Ginger” Jiang suffered massive injuries to her legs and hips when she jumped from the window of block of apartments in Bankstown in September 2012.

Ms Jiang also received treatment for serious burns.

Her friend, Pingkang “Connie” Zhang, 20, died when she jumped, slipped or fell from the unit on West Terrace, the Glebe Coroners court heard.

The inquest is looking into the cause of the fire, the response of fire crews and whether the Bankstown apartment complex met fire and safety standards.

Impossible choice: Connie Zhang and Yinuo Jiang were forced on to the window ledge of the Bankstown unit as it was engulfed in flames.

Horror fall: Connie Zhang was killed in the blaze.

Yinuo ‘Ginger’ Jiang, 27, leaving court in a wheelchair, due to the injuries caused in the blaze. Picture: Stephen Cooper

Causes of fire

Coroner Hugh Dillon is inquiring into how Ms Zhang died and how the fire, which also ended up with 53 people being rescued from the apartment block, started.

Ms Jiang, who was a student at the time, told the inquest through an interpreter that she was working in her bedroom on a computer when the electric power to the unit went out.

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She then spoke to Ms Zhang, who was at the unit visiting her boyfriend, who was at work.

Ms Jiang said she heard the noise of an explosion and saw black smoken and flames on the unit’s balcony, near an air conditioning unit.

Another flatmate, Jianwel “Jason” Zeng, tried to throw water on the flames as they quickly spread from the balcony into the living room.

But he was forced back by the blaze and left by the unit’s front door.

He was not injured.

“I thought if I don’t jump I will die in here. Then I just jumped.”

Ms Jiang said she and Ms Zhang fled into a bedroom and then tried to leave the room but the fire had grown too large.

“The smoke too strong, couldn’t breathe.

“We knew we couldn’t get out. I saw Connie obviously climbed over the window. I tried to climb the window.

“Then I realised the metal bar between the window melted on my hand.

“I thought if I don’t jump I will die in here. Then I just jumped.”

Bankstown apartment fire in West Terrace

The fire started on the fifth floor trapping many at the Bankstown address.

Neighbours at the scene as firefighters bring the fire under control.

Ms Jiang spent 10 months in hospital. During that time Ms Jiang had repeated surgery to repair her shattered hips and ankles and underwent a series of skins grafts for her burns.

After giving her evidence, a tearful Ms Jiang, who was learning to be an English as second language teacher, asked to make a statement to the inquest.

“I came to this country because I love Australia and I wanted to learn how to educate children.

“I think that’s the reason my friend (Ms Zhang) here as well.

“I trust your legal system. Please find out what happened to my friend.”

The Coroner was told that expert evidence would be heard that the fire may have started in a plastic bucket containing tools and a tin of oil or paint that was kept on the balcony and that a cigarette butt may have been thrown into the bucket just prior to the blaze.

Mr Dillon also heard that the building did not have proper fire safety requirements,including sprinklers, in place prior to the blaze and still did not have the measures in place.

Counsel assisting the inquest, said if overhead sprinklers had been fitted, the fire may not have been so intense.