The authorities of Hong Kong this Friday they raised 128 the death toll for the city’s worst fire in decades and announced the arrest of eight people linked to the renovation works of the affected residential complex.
In an anguishing search, the relatives of more than a hundred people who are still missing continued visiting hospitals and care centers. victim identification in the hope of finding his loved ones.
The flames broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the traditional bamboo scaffolding installed on the towers in repair of the urbanization Wang Fuk Courtwith more than 1,800 apartments and located in the Tai Po district of the northern area.
You may also be interested in: Nobel Prize winner Narges Mohammadi says she has a “permanent” ban on leaving Iran
A local commission announced on Friday the arrest of eight people for alleged corruption surrounding the renovation of the 31-story buildings.
Among them there are two construction managers, two office managers in charge of the renovation of the residential complex, three subcontractors responsible for scaffolding y an intermediary.
After burning for more than 40 hours, The fire was “virtually extinguished” on Friday morningthe fire department reported when announcing the end of its search operations for survivors.
The head of city security, Chris Tangreported in a press conference that only 39 of the 128 victims were identified. In addition, there are 79 injured and more than one hundred missing.
Possible causes
Authorities are investigating the causes of the tragedy, including the presence of the flammable bamboo scaffolding and protective plastic mesh that usually wraps buildings under repair in the city.
The fire chief, Andy Yeungrevealed that the fire alarms in the burned buildings “were not working properly” and said that “coercive measures” will be taken against responsible contractors.
Residents of the complex had told AFP that They didn’t hear any sirens and that they had to go door to door to alert neighbors of the danger.
Tang added that the investigations could last three to four weeks.
On Friday morning, rescuers pulled out of the charred rubble corpses in black bags. An AFP journalist counted four in a 15-minute period.
Another reporter saw how the vehicles unloaded bodies in a nearby morguewhere families are expected to arrive in the afternoon to identify them.
In a hospital in Sha Tin, a 38-year-old woman identified as Wong had been searching for her sister-in-law and her twin since Thursday, without luck.
“We still haven’t found them. So we go to different hospitals to ask if they have good news,” she told AFP through tears.
Research underway
This has been Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948, when an explosion followed by a conflagration killed at least 135 people.
Deadly fires were once a common scourge in densely populated Hong Kong, especially in the poorest neighborhoods, but improved conditions security measures has made them much less frequent.
The police captured three suspicious men of having negligently left foam wrappers at the scene.
The Labor Department told AFP on Friday that it had carried out 16 inspections of maintenance works at Wang Fuk Court since July 2024, the most recent on November 20, and had issued “written warnings”.
The government announced after the emergency that it would immediately inspect all developments with major works and that it would study replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal ones.
Community effort
A fund will also be created 300 million Hong Kong dollars (US$38.5 million) to help victims and fActivities related to the Hong Kong legislative elections were suspendedscheduled for December 7.
Crowds moved by the tragedy have gathered in recent days near the complex to organize help for the victims.
In a public square they set up stalls supplying clothing, food and household itemsas well as cabins that provided medical and psychological care.
So many donations were received that the organizers assured on social networks that it was not necessary to send more.
“It’s really moving. The spirit of Hong Kong people is that when someone is in trouble, everyone supports them,” said Stone Ngai, 38, one of the people in charge of one of the points.