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Hong Kong Fire: Negligence and Corruption Suspected in Deadly Apartment Blaze
HONG KONG – A devastating fire in a Hong Kong apartment complex, which claimed at least 128 lives, is raising serious questions about potential corruption and negligence in the building’s recent renovations. The blaze, the deadliest in the city in decades, has sparked a widespread investigation, with multiple arrests already made.
The inferno erupted Wednesday afternoon at the Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong’s northern suburbs, quickly engulfing seven of the eight towers. The complex, home to approximately 4,800 residents, had been the subject of safety concerns regarding its renovations for over a year prior to the tragedy.
Authorities have been swift in their response, with three men from a construction company initially arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They were later re-arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Saturday night, signaling a deeper investigation into their leadership roles in the renovation project. The ICAC had previously arrested seven men and one woman associated with the project.
While police have not publicly identified the construction company, documents from the homeowners’ association indicate that Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was responsible for the renovations. Police have reportedly seized numerous documents from the company, whose phones remained unanswered on Thursday.
Officials are also scrutinizing the materials used in the renovation, specifically the netting on the scaffolding and the foam panels covering windows, to determine their role in the rapid spread of the fire.
Residents Raised Alarms Months Before Tragedy
For nearly a year, residents of Wang Fuk Court had been voicing safety concerns to Hong Kong authorities regarding the scaffolding materials, particularly the netting, used in the renovation project. The city’s labor department confirmed on Saturday that it had received such complaints.
Despite these warnings, and 16 inspections of the renovation project since July 2024, the labor department stated that the safety netting had not been the primary focus of their inspections, though contractors had been repeatedly warned in writing to meet fire safety requirements. An inspection even took place just one week before the fire.
Preliminary investigations suggest the fire originated on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings. Chris Tang, the city’s secretary for security, stated that the blaze rapidly intensified as the foam panels caught fire, causing glass to shatter and allowing the flames to spread quickly into the interior spaces.
The labor department also revealed on Saturday that the construction company had faced three prosecutions for breaches of safety regulations related to working at height, resulting in fines totaling 30,000 Hong Kong dollars ($3,850) in two cases. The company had also incurred three separate fines in 2023 for violations unrelated to the Tai Po project.
Further complicating matters, initial responders discovered that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed a significant number of elderly residents, failed to sound during testing, according to Andy Yeung, director of Hong Kong Fire Services.
Intense Blaze Took Days to Extinguish
It took firefighters a full day to bring the inferno under control, and the blaze was not fully extinguished until Friday morning, approximately 40 hours after it began. Fire crews prioritized apartments from which emergency calls were received but were unable to reach during the initial hours of the uncontrolled fire, according to Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services.
Among the 79 people injured in the blaze were twelve firefighters, and tragically, one firefighter lost their life. Even two days after the fire erupted, smoke continued to emanate from the charred remains of the buildings due to occasional flare-ups.
Search for Victims Continues Amidst Mourning
While authorities believe they have completed their search for trapped residents, more bodies may still be recovered. As of Saturday, 44 of the 128 recovered bodies still needed to be identified, with approximately 150 people remaining unaccounted for.
The deceased include two Indonesian migrant workers, with about 11 other Indonesian domestic helpers who worked in the complex still missing.
In a somber scene near the fire site, Sara Yu and her 2-year-old son, Dominic, placed a single white rose into a growing memorial. “I brought the kids here because I want them to understand that living in this world is something to be cherished,” a tearful Yu said.
Outside a building where families came to identify loved ones, bouquets of white roses, lilies, and carnations were laid, accompanied by a sign that read, “More than 128 innocent lives, what did they do wrong?”
The city has lowered flags to half-staff in mourning, and Chief Executive John Lee led a three-minute silence on Saturday, with officials dressed in black. This tragic event marks Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, surpassing the 1996 commercial building fire that killed 41 and trailing only a 1948 warehouse fire that claimed 176 lives.