[5] The land lot was bought by Kai Yee Investment Company Ltd in 1970 at a cost of HK$1.56 million (US$200,000).

[6] A subsidiary of China Resources, Chinese Arts & Crafts, acquired half the building –from the basement to the ninth floor –for HK$35.5 million in 1989.

A second emergency call was made one minute later, when a dental assistant on the 13th floor discovered dense smoke in the hallway.

It was almost immediately raised to three-alarm at 4:59 p.m. when heavy smoke impeded the firefighters' progress up to the higher floors.

Some of the bodies were so severely burnt, that they melted into the floor and walls leaving only a silhouette shape of the victim in the exact position upon their death only identifiable by the items in their possession before their death, such as jewelry they were wearing or objects they were holding (e.g.: a mobile phone).

One of these people were caught on film being engulfed by the fire while calling for help from one of the windows of on 14th floor and the footage was broadcast live on the news.

Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten urged legislators to speed up the passage of a bill aimed at upgrading the fire safety standards of some 500 premises across the territory.

[2][4] A census was completed days after the incident and found there were 60,000 private buildings in the Hong Kong territory at the time, half of which were more than 20 years old.

It was reported that more than 700 office blocks built 20-plus years earlier, when safety laws were more lenient, were potential deathtraps.

[6] Much of the blame for this incident fell on the welders and occupants, who were not properly trained in fire drills and knew little about building evacuation procedures.

As a result of the fire, building regulations were quickly revised to prevent this sort of disaster from occurring again.

[10] The Discovery Channel Canada series Blueprint for Disaster documented the events of the fire and subsequent investigation, labeling it the Hong Kong Inferno.

Today, JD Mall on Nathan Road sits on top of the site of the former Garley Building.