The morning after the devastating fire in Hong Kong is a terrifying sight: clouds of smoke rise into the sky from seven apartment buildings blackened by the fire, three of which are still not under control. Rescue operations are continuing on their upper floors.
The fire broke out yesterday afternoon in the "Wang Fook Court" complex in the Tai Po district, a northern suburb of Hong Kong. It consists of eight residential skyscrapers with a total of about 2,000 apartments. According to authorities, the fire spread “unusually” quickly in several of the buildings. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
Three arrested
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of negligence causing death. According to police, they are two directors and a technical consultant of a construction company. All the buildings were under renovation and were clad in bamboo scaffolding for the purpose. Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world where bamboo is still used for construction scaffolding, writes the German public media ARD.
The authorities are currently checking whether safety regulations were observed when installing them on the buildings in question, as well as the safety nets installed on them.
“During the fire-fighting operations, it was found that the external walls of the buildings were covered with safety nets, membranes, waterproof canvases and plastic films, which probably did not meet fire safety standards,“ says Eileen Chung of the Hong Kong police. At the same time, the investigation found that in the eighth building of the complex, which remained unaffected by the fire, the windows of the elevator lobbies on each floor were sealed with foam. Investigators do not rule out that this foam contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.