By Tyrone Siu, Joyce Zhou and Jessie Pang
Hong Kong: Hong Kong fire authorities said they expected to wrap up search and rescue operations after the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years tore through a massive apartment complex, killing at least 94 people and leaving dozens still missing.
Firefighters had mostly contained the blaze that destroyed the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the northern district of Tai Po.
Firefighters with torches search for survivors inside a burnt building in Wang Fuk Court.Credit: AP
The eight-tower estate housing more than 4600 people had been undergoing renovations and was wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh when the fire started and quickly spread on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said they had arrested three construction company officials on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows.
Firefighters said they hoped to wrap up search and rescue operations at the still-smouldering complex on Friday morning.
“We’ll endeavour to effect forcible entry to all the units of the seven buildings so as to ensure there are no other possible casualties,” deputy director of Fire Services Derek Chan told reporters early on Friday.
As many as 279 people were listed as missing in the early hours of Thursday morning, but that figure has not been updated for more than 24 hours. Chan said 25 calls for help to the Fire Department remained unresolved, including three in recent hours that would be prioritised.
“Hope they can find more survivors in the building, I think they had tried their best. The firefighters have done a lot,” resident Jacky Kwok said. “It is a terrible disaster that no one wanted to happen.”
More than 70 people were injured, including 11 firefighters, the department said.
Rescuers had battled intense heat, thick smoke and collapsing scaffolding and debris as they fought to reach residents feared trapped on the upper floors of the complex.
On Thursday, a distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said are housing 900 residents.
“She and her father are still not out yet,” said the 52-year-old, who gave only her surname, Ng, as she sobbed. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”
Most of the victims were found in two towers in the complex, while firefighters found survivors in several buildings, Chan said, giving no further details. The South China Morning Post reported one survivor had been found on a stairwell.
Resident Lawrence Lee was waiting for news about his wife, who he believed was still trapped in their apartment.
Firefighting efforts continued into a second day.Credit: AP
“When the fire started, I told her on the phone to escape. But once she left the flat, the corridor and stairs were all filled with smoke and it was all dark, so she had no choice but to go back to the flat,” he said, as he waited in one of the shelters overnight.
Retiree Lau Yu Hung, 78, told The New York Times that he just happened to look out of a window and saw flames were already rising up the building next door.
He and his wife barely escaped their 19th-floor apartment in time. “Nobody warned us,” he said as he stood near the scorched building on Thursday night. “No alarm went off. We escaped by ourselves.”
Worst fire since 1948
The confirmed death toll rose to 94 early on Friday, the Hospital Authority said. Two of the dead were Indonesian nationals working as domestic helpers, the Indonesian consulate said. Hong Kong has around 368,000 domestic workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers.
The fire is now Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017. That fire was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
A firefighter searches through a building.Credit: AP
Police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm that had been doing maintenance on the buildings for more than a year.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” Police Superintendent Eileen Chung said on Thursday. Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment.
Police seized bidding documents, a list of employees, 14 computers and three mobile phones in a raid of the company’s office, the government said.
Volunteers provide clothing and supplies for surviving residents in the aftermath of the deadly fire. Credit: AP
Police said they found foam material sealing windows on one unaffected building, installed in the year-long maintenance work. The city’s development bureau has discussed gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.
Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said the government would set up a $HK300 million ($59 million) fund to help residents, while some of China’s biggest listed companies, including carmakers Xiaomi, Xpeng and Geely, as well as Tencent and the charity foundation of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma both announced donations.
In a telegram to Hong Kong’s bishop, Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-Yan, Pope Leo sent “spiritual solidarity to all those suffering from the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve”.
On the second night after the blaze, dozens of evacuees set up mattresses in a nearby mall, many saying official evacuation centres should be saved for those in greater need. People – from elderly residents to schoolchildren – wrapped themselves in doonas and huddled in tents outside a McDonald’s restaurant and shops as volunteers handed out snacks and toiletries.
Residents seeks shelter in a nearby shopping centre in the aftermath of the fire.Credit: AP
Hong Kong, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, is scattered with high-rise housing complexes. Its sky-high property prices have long been a trigger for discontent and the tragedy could stoke resentment towards authorities despite efforts to tighten political and national security control.
The leadership of both the Hong Kong government and China’s Communist Party moved quickly to show they attached utmost importance to a tragedy seen as a potential test of Beijing’s grip on the semi-autonomous region.
On Thursday night, Lau Wan King told The New York Times that his brother-in-law was a resident of the first building that caught fire. The 79-year-old part-time minibus driver said he had been standing outside a police cordon near the towers for 12 hours, waiting for news.
He said he called his relative on his mobile phone as soon as he heard about the blaze. His brother-in-law said he was having trouble fleeing his apartment on the eighth floor because the building was already filled with smoke. It was the last time they spoke.
“There is not much hope now,” Lau said.
Reuters, AP
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