Hong Kong’s deadliest hearth in a long time has raised questions on corruption and negligence within the renovations of the condominium complicated the place no less than 128 individuals died.
An intense hearth broke out at Wang Fuk Courtroom complicated in Hong Kong’s northern suburbs Wednesday afternoon, with flames overlaying seven of the eight towers. The complicated was residence to some 4,800 residents, a few of whom had raised security considerations concerning the renovations greater than 12 months earlier than the hearth.
Police on Wednesday arrested three males from a building firm on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They’re now out on bail. Authorities then arrested seven males and one girl, 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 in command of 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 position within the blaze.
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Residents highlighted questions of safety a 12 months earlier than hearth
For nearly a 12 months, some residents on the Wang Fuk Courtroom complicated had been elevating security considerations to Hong Kong authorities concerning the scaffolding supplies getting used within the renovation mission, in response to 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 obtained 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 instances in writing that they need to guarantee they met hearth security necessities. The 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 keeping 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 web of one of many buildings. It then unfold quickly as the froth panels caught hearth, mentioned Chris Tang, the town’s secretary for safety. Police additionally mentioned that they had been trying 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 building 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 thrice in 2023 for separate violations unrelated to the Tai Po mission.
First responders additionally discovered that some hearth alarms within the complicated, which housed many older individuals, didn’t sound when examined, mentioned Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fireplace Providers. 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 deliver the hearth beneath management, and it was not absolutely extinguished till Friday morning — some 40 hours after it began.
Crews prioritized residences from which that they had obtained emergency calls throughout the blaze however had been unable to succeed in within the hours that the hearth burned uncontrolled, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fireplace Providers, instructed reporters.
Twelve firefighters had been among the many 79 individuals 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 may be 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 individuals stay unaccounted for.
The useless 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 condominium complicated stay lacking, Indonesian Consul Basic Yul Edison mentioned Friday.
Close to the location 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 children right here as a result of I would like them to know 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, individuals positioned bouquets of white roses, lilies and carnations. “Greater than 128 harmless lives, what did they do unsuitable?” requested an indication positioned among the many flowers.
The town lowered flags to half employees in mourning, and Chief Govt John Lee, led a three-minute silence Saturday from the federal government headquarters with officers all wearing black.
The fireplace was the deadliest in Hong Kong in a long time. A 1996 hearth in a business constructing in Kowloon killed 41 individuals. A warehouse hearth in 1948 killed 176 individuals, in response to the South China Morning Submit.
