Hong Kong fire: death toll rises to 128, with 200 still missing
Authorities have arrested five people for alleged responsibility in the tragedy and guarantee criminal consequences.
BarcelonaThe number of deaths in the fire that occurred this Wednesday in the Wang Fuk Court residential complex The death toll in Hong Kong has risen to 128, while some 200 people are still missing, according to official sources on Friday. The Secretary of State for Security of the semi-autonomous region, Chris Tang Ping-keung, told the media that 80 bodies have not yet been identified and did not rule out the possibility that rescue teams will find more.
The government official, who also raised the number of injured to 79, confirmed that the cause of the rapid spread of the flames It was the use of highly flammable polystyrene sheets in the windows. This also caused the glass to shatter and the fire to spread inside the buildings, which were covered by bamboo scaffolding for renovation work on the complex. "There were massive fires both inside and outside, which caused this disaster," Tang said.
Construction industry sources in Hong Kong consulted by the ARA, however, point to a failure in the safety systems to explain the tragedy: "No matter the bamboo scaffolding, the protective netting, or anything else on the construction site, there are regulations and safety requirements. But in this case, probably, something, probably, something." In fact, the director of the Fire Department, Andy Yeung, revealed in the same appearance that the fire alarms did not work properly, as numerous neighbors had reported.
Yeung has also assured that all of this will have legal consequences. So far, authorities have arrested five people for their alleged responsibility in the tragedy—two of them this Friday—belonging to the construction company in charge of the complex's renovation and an architectural firm that advised on the project.
The fire, which had active hotspots until this Thursday, started last Wednesday in tower 8 of the residential complex, made up of eight 31-story blocks, built in 1984 and inhabited by some 4,600 people, many of them elderly. According to sources consulted by this newspaper, the complex was built by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and sold to a private individual, and is therefore privately owned.