HK ends search of burned buildings; some 160 dead
Hong Kong recorded 159 deaths from the territory’s deadliest fire in decades as authorities concluded their search of burned buildings Wednesday, a week after the inferno engulfed the high-rise housing complex.
Law enforcement authorities announced that they had completed their inspection of all seven charred residential towers. They will now begin examining the surrounding scaffolding for any remains, as approximately 30 people remain unaccounted for.
Seven of the eight buildings at the densely populated Wang Fuk Court estate in the northern Tai Po district were engulfed in flames, as they were covered in scaffolding at the time due to an exterior wall refurbishment project.
Authorities had earlier attributed the accident to the “substandard” plastic mesh netting and foam board used for the refurbishment project. “We found several bodies in the same building at one point,” said Supt. Stephen Cheng, commander of the police disaster victims identification unit.
“They could very well be a family,” he added. The authorities also said they had preliminarily identified 140 bodies, including five renovation workers and 10 foreign domestic workers, and that they had arrested more than 20 individuals believed to be connected to the fire.
The fire prompted officials to order the immediate citywide removal of mesh netting sheets from all construction sites by Saturday, covering some 210 projects, after local media alleged that contractors on other building retrofitting projects had forged test reports to evade inspections.
The sheets had to be sampled on-site and pass testing at government-designated labs before being installed, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn said Wednesday.
Residents of the only building in Wang Fuk Court that escaped the conflagration unscathed were allowed to retrieve their necessities and valuables on Wednesday.
“We came to get medicine and thick clothes,” a woman who was evacuated to a hotel with two elderly people said.
“We don’t see any prospect of returning home,” she added. About 96 percent of the deaths occurred in the building considered the ground zero of the fire, as well as in the building next to it.
