A young woman who was left wheelchair-bound after she jumped from a burning building is suing her landlord.
University students Ginger Jiang and Connie Zhang were inside a fifth-floor unit in Bankstown, Sydney, when flames engulfed their apartment in September, 2012.
They became trapped in a bedroom before climbing out the window and subsequently jumping, with one dying and the other now confined to a wheelchair.
Ms Jiang and her parents, as well as Ms Zhang’s mother and father, are now seeking damages in the Supreme Court, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
University students Ginger Jiang and Connie Zhang became trapped in a bedroom before climbing out the window and subsequently jumping, with one dying and the other now confined to a wheelchair
Ms Jiang (pictured in a wheelchair) and her parents, as well as Ms Zhang’s mother and father, are now seeking damages in the Supreme Court
The apartment didn’t have sprinklers and was modified without council approval, are among the families’ allegations.
They are suing a range of defendants, including the apartment’s landlord and the company responsible for installing extinguishers in the building, the paper reported.
The families allege an extra room was added within the apartment so more people could live there to increase its rental yield.
This gave the blaze ‘additional fuel’ and made the apartment ‘more of a fire risk’, making it harder to escape, it is alleged.
The pair were inside a fifth-floor unit in Bankstown, Sydney, when flames engulfed their apartment in September, 2012
Connie Zhang (pictured left) tragically fell to her death after jumping from the apartment. Ms Ziang (right) is now in a wheelchair after the devastating fire
The defendants also allegedly failed to ensure fire doors were working, and issued an occupancy certificate for the building when it wasn’t fitted with sprinklers.
The claims are reportedly being defended on several counts. The matter will return to court next year.
Ms Jiang broke down at Glebe Coroner’s Court in 2015 as she recalled the horrifying ordeal during an inquest into Ms Zhang’s death.
Ms Jiang said she was working on an assignment when she heard an explosion coming from the balcony of her apartment on September 6, 2012.
The power cut out, and she saw flames licking up from the air conditioning unit on the balcony.
In a flash the fire had rushed through the open balcony door, filling the unit with black smoke.
Ms Jiang said she nudged the door open and saw a wall of dense smoke behind it.
‘We knew we could not get out… Then we threw ourselves towards the window. I saw Connie climb over the window,’ she said.
Ms Jiang said she was working on an assignment when she heard an explosion coming from the balcony of her Bankstown apartment in Sydney’s west on September 6, 2012
‘There was only half of the window area left for me. The fire and smoke [was] strong behind me.’
She said people on the ground told her to go back inside and run towards the door, but she could not.
‘I breathed in smoke. I could not breathe any more. I thought, if I don’t jump, I will die here. Then I just jumped.’
She survived the five-storey fall but Ms Zhang, who jumped shortly after, died from the impact.
The power cut out, and she saw flames licking up from the air conditioning unit on the balcony
The apartment didn’t have sprinklers and was modified without council approval, are among the families’ allegations
The inquest found that safety measures could have helped prevent Ms Zhang’s death.
Coroner Hugh Dillon at the time called for sprinklers to be installed in all apartment buildings.
‘If sprinklers had been installed through out this building it’s very likely that both Connie and Ginger would have survived without serious injury,’ said the Coronor, Fairfax reported at the time.
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