Eight arrested over HK’s deadliest fire in 80 years

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency says it has arrested eight people in connection with a fire at a high-rise apartment complex that killed at least 128 people in the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years, with 200 still missing.

Authorities said they had completed rescue operations at the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern district of Tai Po, but warned the death toll could still rise.

The Independent Anti-Corruption Commission also said it had set up a working group to investigate possible corruption in the complex’s renovation project after police arrested three people on Thursday.

The fire at the Wang Fuk Court construction started on Wednesday afternoon and quickly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks in the complex.

“We do not rule out the possibility that more bodies will be found when police enter the building for detailed investigations,” Hong Kong Security Chief Chris Tang said at a news conference. he said.

Tang also said fire alarms in the complex were not working properly. The property, home to more than 4,600 people, was covered with bamboo scaffolding and green netting for the renovation.

He said rescue efforts were completed and at least 79 people, including 12 firefighters, were injured.

“Our aim now is to ensure that the temperature in the building drops and once everything is safe the police will collect evidence and conduct a further investigation,” he said.

On Friday, mourners laid flowers in front of charred and smoldering buildings while distressed residents examined the ruins of their homes.

Meanwhile, families faced the difficult task of looking through photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers. Security Chief Tang said only 39 of the 128 dead had been identified.

Hundreds of volunteers stepped up to help victims, sorting and distributing items ranging from diapers to hot meals.

They formed teams to collect, transport and distribute goods in 24-hour shifts and set up a large support camp for displaced residents near a shopping mall across from the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk complex.

The blaze is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when a warehouse fire killed 176 people, and has led to comparisons with London’s Grenfell Tower inferno in 2017, which killed 72 people.

Residents of the housing complex were told by authorities last year that they faced “relatively low fire risks” after repeatedly complaining about fire hazards posed by ongoing renovations, the city’s Works Department told Reuters.

Residents have expressed concerns about the September 2024 renovations, including the potential for the protective green netting contractors used to cover bamboo scaffolding built around the buildings to be flammable, a department spokesperson said in an email.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said the eight people arrested included an engineering consultant, a scaffolding subcontractor and a middleman.

Police on Thursday arrested two executives and an engineering consultant from Prestige Construction, which the government found had been performing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for more than a year, on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam sheets covering windows.

Prestige did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

The city’s development bureau discussed gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.

Edwina Antonio, executive director of migrant women’s shelter Bethune House, said dozens of domestic workers from the Philippines were caught up in the disaster and 19 were still missing.

The Indonesian consulate said that two of the dead were its own citizens who also worked as domestic help. There are approximately 368,000 domestic workers in Hong Kong, most of whom are women from low-income Asian countries and live with their employers.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said the government would set up a HK$300 million ($59 million) fund to help residents, while some of China’s biggest companies announced donations.

Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, is full of high-rise residential complexes. Sky-high property prices have long triggered discontent, and analysts say the tragedy could fuel resentment against authorities despite efforts to tighten political and national security control.