Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has raised questions on corruption and negligence within the renovations of the condo advanced the place a minimum of 128 folks died.
An intense fireplace broke out at Wang Fuk Courtroom advanced in Hong Kong’s northern suburbs Wednesday afternoon, with flames overlaying seven of the eight towers. The advanced was house to some 4,800 residents, a few of whom had raised security considerations concerning the renovations greater than yr earlier than the hearth.
Police on Wednesday arrested three males from a development firm on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They’re now out on bail. Authorities then arrested seven males and one lady, together with scaffolding subcontractors, administrators of an engineering consultancy firm and mission managers supervising the renovation, in a corruption probe.
Police haven’t recognized the corporate the place the suspects labored, however paperwork posted to the householders affiliation’s web site confirmed that the Status Development & Engineering Firm was accountable for renovations. Police have seized containers of paperwork from the corporate, the place telephones rang unanswered Thursday.
Officers additionally mentioned they had been investigating the supplies used, each the netting on the scaffolding and the froth panels overlaying home windows, and their function within the blaze.
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Residents highlighted issues of safety a yr earlier than fireplace
For nearly a yr, some residents on the Wang Fuk Courtroom advanced had been elevating security considerations to Hong Kong authorities concerning the scaffolding supplies getting used within the renovation mission, in accordance with paperwork reviewed by the AP, particularly concerning the netting that coated the scaffolding.
Hong Kong’s labor division in an announcement on Saturday confirmed it had acquired such complaints, including that officers had carried out 16 inspections of Wang Fuk Courtroom’s renovation mission since July 2024, and had warned contractors a number of occasions in writing that they need to guarantee they met fireplace security necessities. Town even carried out an inspection as late as one week earlier than the hearth.
The labor division mentioned it had reviewed the product high quality certificates of the netting and that it was in step with requirements, however that the protection netting had not been the earlier goal of inspections.
Preliminary investigations confirmed the hearth began on a lower-level scaffolding internet of one of many buildings. It then unfold quickly as the froth panels caught fireplace, mentioned Chris Tang, town’s secretary for safety. Police additionally mentioned they’d been wanting on the extremely flammable foam panels.
“The blaze ignited the froth panels, inflicting the glass to shatter and resulting in a swift intensification of the hearth and its unfold into the inside areas,” Tang mentioned.
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The labor division mentioned afterward Saturday that three prosecutions had been introduced in opposition to the corporate over breaches of security rules for working at top within the development and convictions in two of the instances resulted in fines of totaling 30,000 Hong Kong {dollars}, or $3,850. The corporate additionally was fined 3 times in 2023 for separate violations unrelated to the Tai Po mission.
First responders additionally discovered that some fireplace alarms within the advanced, which housed many older folks, didn’t sound when examined, mentioned Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fireplace Companies. He didn’t specify what number of weren’t working or if any of the others had been.
Intense blaze took days to place out
It took firefighters a day to carry the hearth beneath management, and it was not absolutely extinguished till Friday morning — some 40 hours after it began.
Crews prioritized residences from which they’d acquired emergency calls in the course of the blaze however had been unable to achieve within the hours that the hearth burned uncontrolled, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fireplace Companies, informed reporters.
Twelve firefighters had been among the many 79 folks injured within the blaze, and one firefighter was killed.
Even two days after the hearth started, smoke continued to float out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.
Chan Lengthy Hei / AP 
Extra our bodies could also be discovered
Whereas extra our bodies is perhaps recovered, authorities mentioned, crews have completed their seek for anybody dwelling trapped inside.
Authorities mentioned Saturday they should determine 44 extra our bodies out of the 128 recovered. About 150 folks stay unaccounted for.
The lifeless included two Indonesian migrant employees, the Indonesian international ministry mentioned Thursday. About 11 different migrants from the nation who had been working as home helpers within the condo advanced stay lacking, Indonesian Consul Common Yul Edison mentioned Friday.
Close to the positioning of the hearth, Sara Yu held the hand of her 2-year-old son, Dominic, as they every positioned a single white rose right into a rising cluster of the flowers in a babies’s playground.
“I introduced the youngsters right here as a result of I need them to grasp that dwelling on this world is one thing to be cherished,” she mentioned, holding again tears.
YAN ZHAO / AFP 
Outdoors a constructing near the scene of the hearth the place members of the family got here to determine family members from pictures, folks positioned bouquets of white roses, lilies and carnations. “Greater than 128 harmless lives, what did they do flawed?” requested an indication positioned among the many flowers.
Town lowered flags to half employees in mourning, and Chief Government John Lee, led a three-minute silence Saturday from the federal government headquarters with officers all wearing black.
The hearth was the deadliest in Hong Kong in a long time. A 1996 fireplace in a industrial constructing in Kowloon killed 41 folks. A warehouse fireplace in 1948 killed 176 folks, in accordance with the South China Morning Submit.
