‘Broken hearts’ and curdling fury as Hong Kong mourns fire victims
Hundreds of mourners arrived with white flowers to remember the victims of the city’s deadliest blaze in decades, as forensic workers continued the brutal process of removing bodies from the blackened towers.
Some whispered prayers, others stood silently and stared at the burnt shells of the towers, tears streaming down their faces.
As Hong Kong enters its second official day of mourning, there is a chilling anger about how this disaster happened and how it came to come at such a heavy cost in human life.
A mourner holds a flower near the site to mourn the victims of the deadly apartment fires in Hong Kong.Credit: access point
Handwritten notes placed among growing piles of flowers placed blame on the corrupt system, calling for justice and accountability for those responsible.
One read: “The problem is in the system and God is watching.”
The death toll reached 128, but this figure has not been updated since Friday and 44 of the dead have not yet been identified. There is still no news from 150 people. At least one more body was removed from the towers on Sunday morning. South China Morning Post reported.
The blaze has been compared to the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people in June 2017, and triggered similar accusations of lax safety standards and corruption.
For more than a year, bamboo scaffolding covered with green netting covered the facade of Wang Fuk towers. The site has been inspected 16 times for safety and authorities have issued six improvement notices.
People are praying and laying flowers to mourn the victims of the deadly fire that killed at least 128 people.Credit: access point
The cause of the fire has not been confirmed, but Hong Kong authorities arrested 11 people involved in the renovation of the towers on suspicion that the use of mesh and Styrofoam in renovation materials accelerated the fire.
Among those who laid flowers at the site on Sunday were Hong Kongers, as well as members of the Indonesian and Filipino communities; many of them were staying with domestic workers on their first day off since the tragedy.
The death toll includes at least seven Indonesian workers and one Filipino, among the 119 Indonesians and 82 Filipinos who authorities believe lived and worked in the towers.
Yani, a 30-year-old Indonesian domestic worker, cried as she remembered her friend who died in a fire in Indonesia, leaving behind her five-year-old son. They came from the same village and had been friends since childhood.
“The whole community is heartbroken,” he says. “They came here to make money and lost their lives.”
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Candy Chan, who has lived in the Tai Po neighborhood for 30 years and has friends who lost family members in the fires, said people have a hard time understanding how this could happen and want to be held accountable.
“This is a tragedy caused by some human error. I can’t understand why this is happening in Hong Kong,” he says. “I truly believe there must be someone [held] responsible for this.”
Other messages carried a distinctly political tone, taking aim at the Hong Kong government’s decision to phase out traditional bamboo scaffolding, long an iconic feature of the city’s skyline, and replace it with metal materials imported from mainland China.
“The net that caused the fire is not the bamboos. The Hong Kong government disregards human life. They are a force that kills people, just like the terrible CCP. Never use metal scaffolding,” one note read, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
