‘If I don’t jump I will die’: Woman tells of fire fall tragedy

JUMP or die was the horrific choice that faced Yinuo “Ginger” Jiang as she clung to a Bankstown window ledge as a devastating fire swept towards her.

GLEBE Coroners Court; Yinuo ÒGingerÓ Jiang, 27,(in wheelchair) leaving court Yinuo ÒGingerÓ Jiang survived after jumping from a ninth storey window from a burning building in Bankstown in 2012. Inquest to begin into death of Pingkang Zhang, who died after jumping from a ninth storey window from a burning building in Bankstown in 2012. pic Stephen Cooper

JUMP or die was the horrific choice that faced Yinuo “Ginger” Jiang as she clung to a Bankstown window ledge as a devastating fire swept towards her.

The teacher relived that horror yesterday at the coronial inquest into the death of her friend Pingkang “Connie” Zhang, who was killed when she jumped or fell from the same unit block window in September 2012.

Ms Jiang chose to jump and shattered her legs and hips.

“I thought if I don’t jump I will die in here,” she told Glebe Coroner’s Court yesterday. “Then I just jumped.”

Ms Jiang, who also needed skins grafts for serious burns, was the first witness to give evidence on the opening day of an inquest into Ms Zhang’s death.

Haunting images caught on the day show the women clinging to the narrow ledge as thick black smoke surged around them.

Yinuo “Ginger” Jiang and Pingkang “Connie” Zhang cling to the window ledge at the height of the 2012 fire.

Coroner Hugh Dillon is inquiring into how Ms Zhang,20, died and how the fire started.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Stephen Rushton, said evidence would be heard that the fire would not have occurred if the unit was fitted with overhead sprinklers.

Mr Rushton said the building did not comply with fire safety requirements before the blaze and still did not have appropriate safety measures now.

He said the three-bedroom unit also had an illegal fourth bedroom, made when the tenants sectioned off the loungeroom with a timber wall.

Ms Jiang said through an interpreter that she was working in her bedroom on a computer when the power to the unit went out.

She then spoke briefly to Ms Zhang, who was at the unit visiting her boyfriend, Zhengkai “Terry” Li, who was then at work.

Ms Jiang said she then heard a loud explosion and saw black smoke and flames on the unit’s balcony, near an air conditioning unit.

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. Mr Zeng was deported to China in the months after the blaze for overstaying a student visa. He was to injured in the fire.

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

“The smoke too strong, couldn’t breathe,” she said. “You couldn’t escape. We knew we couldn’t get out.”

The pair then climbed out onto the ledge.

“I tried to climb the window, to breathe from there. 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.”

Ms Jiang spent 10 months in hospital.

Ms Jiang arrives at Glebe Coroners Court yesterday. Picture: Stephen Cooper

The Coroner was told that the cause of the fire is not yet apparent, but evidence from an expert would be heard that the blaze may have started in a metal waste bin containing tools and a tin of oil or paint that was kept on the balcony.

Mr Rushton said the expert will say it is possible that a cigarette butt may have been thrown into the bucket just prior to the blaze.

In a statement to police, Mr Zeng said he had been smoking on the veranda and put the butt in an ashtray on top of the air-conditioning unit.

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 trust your legal system. Please find out what happened to my friend,” she said.

The inquest continues.

Originally published as ‘If I don’t jump I will die’: Woman tells of fire fall tragedy