HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s deadliest hearth in many years has raised questions on corruption and negligence within the renovations of the residence 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 masking seven of the eight towers. The complicated was residence to some 4,800 residents, a few of whom had raised security issues concerning the renovations greater than 12 months earlier than the hearth.
Police on Wednesday arrested three males from a development firm on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They had been launched on bail however then arrested by the Unbiased Fee Towards Corruption, the authority mentioned Saturday night time, pointing to their management position within the renovations. ICAC had additionally beforehand arrested seven males and one girl related to the mission.
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 bins 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 masking home windows, and their position within the blaze.
Residents discovered issues 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 issues to Hong Kong authorities concerning the scaffolding supplies getting used within the renovation mission, based on 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. 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 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 wanting on the extremely flammable foam panels.
YAN ZHAO through Getty Pictures
“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang mentioned.
The labor division mentioned in a while Saturday that three prosecutions had been introduced in opposition to the corporate over breaches of security rules for working at peak within the development and convictions in two of the instances resulted in fines of totaling 30,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($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 Hearth 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 below management, and it was not absolutely extinguished till Friday morning — some 40 hours after it began.
Crews prioritized flats from which that they had obtained emergency calls in the course of 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 Hearth Providers, advised 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.
PHILIP FONG through Getty Pictures
Sawayasu Tsuji through Getty Pictures
Extra our bodies could also be discovered
Whereas extra our bodies may be recovered, authorities mentioned, crews have completed their seek for anybody residing trapped inside.
Authorities mentioned Saturday they should determine 44 extra our bodies out of the 128 recovered. About 150 individuals stay unaccounted for.
The lifeless included two Indonesian migrant employees, the Indonesian overseas ministry mentioned Thursday. About 11 different migrants from the nation who had been working as home helpers within the residence complicated stay lacking, Indonesian Consul Common 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 young children’s playground.
“I brought the kids here because I want them to understand that living in this world is something to be cherished,” she mentioned, holding again tears.
Outdoors a constructing near the scene of the hearth the place relations got here to determine family members from images, individuals positioned bouquets of white roses, lilies and carnations. “More than 128 innocent lives, what did they do wrong?” requested an indication positioned among the many flowers.
Town lowered flags to half workers in mourning, and Chief Government 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 many years. A 1996 hearth in a industrial constructing in Kowloon killed 41 individuals. A warehouse hearth in 1948 killed 176 individuals, based on the South China Morning Submit.
Researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing and author David Rising in Hong Kong contributed to this report. Wu reported from Bangkok
