By CHAN HO-HIM and ELAINE KURTENBACH | Related Press
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s worst fireplace in reminiscence was nonetheless smoldering in a number of condominium towers Thursday as firefighters struggled to seek out dozens of people that remained unaccounted for.
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No less than 94 individuals have been recognized to have died within the blaze that broke out Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court docket in Taipo, a suburb within the metropolis’s mountainous New Territories. Dozens extra have been injured, and about 900 of the 4,800 residents have been evacuated to momentary shelters in a single day.
Seven of the eight 32-story towers within the constructing advanced have been engulfed in flames after building supplies and bamboo scaffolding caught fireplace. Officers stated that excessive warmth was hampering rescue efforts.
The hearth was deadlier than one in November 1996, when 41 individuals died in a industrial constructing in Kowloon in a blaze that lasted for round 20 hours. A warehouse fireplace in 1948 killed 176 individuals, in accordance with the South China Morning Publish newspaper.
Right here’s what to know in regards to the catastrophe:
Why the buildings burst into flames
Officers are investigating why building supplies, netting and bamboo scaffolding being utilized in renovations to the outsides of the high-rise buildings at Wang Fuk Court docket caught fireplace.
Within the meantime, authorities arrested three individuals, the administrators and an engineering guide of a building firm, on suspicion of manslaughter. Police didn’t title the corporate, however they searched the workplace of Status Development & Engineering Co., which The Related Press confirmed was accountable for the renovations. Telephone calls to the corporate’s places of work went unanswered.
Officers stated they believe that some supplies, corresponding to plastic foam panels getting used to guard home windows from harm, didn’t meet fireplace resistance requirements. Excessive winds helped unfold the flames.
The kind of buildings affected
A few third of Hong Kong residents stay within the authorities’s Housing Authority dwellings. Wang Fuk Court docket is a fancy of privately-owned however backed housing.
Constructed within the Nineteen Eighties, the essential residences measure 430 to 485 sq. toes, in accordance with on-line actual property listings. Like most Hong Kong mass market housing, they seem to not be geared up with smoke detectors or sprinkler techniques.
The buildings have been constructed earlier than revisions to Hong Kong’s fireplace codes required necessary fireplace refuge flooring.
Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents largely stay in cramped residences crammed on scarce flat lands or perched on the slopes of steep mountainsides. Lots of these high-rise buildings are crowded carefully collectively.
How Hong Kong’s authorities have responded
Firefighters struggled to convey the blazes underneath management as their ladders and hoses might solely attain simply over midway up the 32-story buildings, or about 175 toes — lower than 20 tales.
Excessive winds and intensely excessive warmth could have prevented use of aerial tools corresponding to helicopters. The excessive temperatures additionally deterred firefighters from getting into the buildings to struggle the blaze and rescue survivors, stated Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Hong Kong’s Fireplace Service Operations.
Hong Kong Chief Govt John Lee stated the federal government would arrange a activity power to conduct a full investigation into the catastrophe. He stated the case can be submitted to the Coroner’s Court docket, which conducts inquiries into the causes and circumstances of sure deaths.
Lee stated the federal government deliberate to examine all housing estates present process main repairs to evaluate the protection of scaffolding and building supplies. He additionally promised to supply “all possible support” to these affected by the hearth.
Serving to the survivors
The a whole bunch of survivors who have been evacuated or have been exterior the buildings on the time the hearth began have been staying in momentary shelters, together with a close-by college.
There, staff have been distributing bottled water, meals and different requirements. Volunteers have been bringing provides like water and snacks.
Greater than 70 individuals have been injured, the town’s Fireplace Providers Division stated.
