Hong Kong
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The death toll in Hong Kong’s devastating apartment complex fire has risen to 128 and the number of people missing has reached 128, authorities said Friday, and authorities announced eight more arrests in the blaze.
On Wednesday, the inferno spread rapidly through a public housing complex in the city’s Tai Po district, trapping people indoors. As authorities warn the death toll could rise further, focus shifts to what caused the region’s worst fires in decades.
Fire Chief Andy Yong said during an inspection conducted after the fire, authorities discovered that all eight of the complex’s fire alarms were “non-functional.” It is not clear whether the alarm system was activated on the day of the fire, but residents previously told CNN that the building’s alarms did not go off.
“We will take law enforcement action in this regard,” Yong said.
The city’s anti-corruption body announced eight people were arrested on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation. These include two directors of a consultancy firm that advised on the complex’s maintenance work, two project managers responsible for overseeing the work, three scaffolding subcontractors, and one intermediary.
Three men working for a construction company were arrested earlier this week on charges of “culpable homicide resulting from gross negligence,” authorities announced Thursday.
All three were granted bail on Friday, Hong Kong police said. The men (two company directors and one consultant) are required to surrender to police in early December.
The fire shocked a city of high-rise buildings that is usually safe and has strong building standards.
Displaced people and survivors, many of them in temporary shelters for a third night on Friday, are wondering how such a disaster could happen, while others wait hopelessly to find out if their missing loved ones are among the victims.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Yong said police expected to take three to four weeks to investigate how the fire spread so quickly from building to building, turning a single high-rise fire into multiple high-rise fires at the same time.
Hong Kong’s Home Affairs and Youth Affairs Secretary Alice Mak announced on Friday that the families of those killed in the fire would receive HK$200,000 (approximately US$25,700) from the government.
He said households affected by the fire would also receive a subsistence allowance of HK$50,000 (approximately US$6,400) within the next week.
Officials believe the first fire broke out on the lower floor of Wang Chong House, located in Block 6 of the eight towers that make up Wang Fuk Court. Wang Fuk Court was a densely packed complex housing more than 4,000 people, many of them elderly.
At the time of the fire, Wangfu Court was undergoing renovations, and all eight towers were covered with bamboo scaffolding and green protective netting. Police earlier found the construction company’s name written on combustible polystyrene boards that firefighters found blocking some windows in the apartment complex.
“The mesh net ignited and quickly spread to the polystyrene boards around the windows, causing fire to spread to other floors and buildings,” Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tan said.
“After the polystyrene ignited, the high temperature caused the window glass to break and the fire spread indoors.”
Tang said the net and bamboo scaffolding caught fire and fell, spreading the fire to other floors. It added that firefighters and residents faced extreme conditions with temperatures inside the building reaching more than 500 degrees Celsius (930 degrees Fahrenheit).
Tang said the mesh net meets safety standards.
Hong Kong Labor and Welfare Secretary Chris Sun told the media on Friday that of the 16 inspections carried out by the Ministry of Manpower on maintenance work at the building since last year, the most recent inspection was carried out less than a week before the fire broke out.
Sun said the previous inspection was conducted after complaints that some employees were smoking.
“At that time, a written advisory was issued regarding fire safety and contractors were instructed to increase fire safety measures,” he said.
Fire and rescue efforts were further complicated by the fact that some units in the building re-ignited even after the fire was extinguished by firefighters.
Son said the Hong Kong Labor Department was working with the Indonesian and Philippine consulates in the city to assist foreign domestic helpers who were living in the building. These workers are usually contractually required to live in the same residence as their employer.
He said those killed in the fire would be identified and their bodies repatriated, while adding that “special arrangements” were being made to return foreign domestic workers who were survivors of the disaster to their homelands.
