Hong Kong tower fire toll rises to 128, 200 remain missing

[HONG KONG] The death toll from Hong Kong’s worst fire in nearly 80 years has risen to 128 and about 200 people remain missing from the high-rise residential complex that was engulfed by the blaze, the city’s security chief said on Friday (Nov 28).

The fire hit the Wang Fuk Court development, with eight 32-storey towers, in the northern district of Tai Po on Wednesday afternoon.

“We do not rule out the possibility that more bodies could be discovered when police enter the building for detailed investigations,” Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang told a press conference, adding that only 39 of the 128 dead had been identified.

Tang also said fire alarms in the buildings had not been working properly.

Rescue efforts had now been concluded and at least 79 people, including 12 firefighters were injured, he added.

“Our aim now is to make sure the temperature decreases in the building and once everything is deemed safe, police will collect evidence and conduct further investigation,” Tang said.

The estate housing more than 4,600 people had been wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh for renovation work.

Residents of the housing complex were told by authorities last year that they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining repeatedly about fire hazards posed by ongoing renovation works, the city’s Labour Department told Reuters.

While firefighters contained the blaze on Friday and doused the still-smouldering towers, families had the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.

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Mirra Wong, whose parents were living in Wang Fuk Court, was looking for news of her father.

“Just recognise some pictures (that) may be the body of my dad. My dad’s body is still missing here,” said Wong, 48.

Another resident, who did not want to be identified, said a friend’s wife was among those unaccounted for.

“Rationally speaking, it means there’s no hope,” she said. “But the bodies still have to be found, right? Let me see if they’ve found them ... It’s just too sorrowful. When it involves people you know, it’s even more painful.”

Dozens of domestic workers from the Philippines had been caught up in the disaster and 19 were still missing, said Edwina Antonio, executive director at migrant women refuge association Bethune House.

Indonesia’s consulate said two of the dead were nationals also working as domestic helpers. Hong Kong has around 368,000 domestic workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers.

The fire is 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.

Police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court 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 added.

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 US$39 million fund to help residents while some of China’s biggest listed companies announced donations.

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 duvets and huddled in tents outside a McDonald’s restaurant and convenience shops as volunteers handed out snacks and toiletries.

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 analysts say 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. REUTERS