At least 13 people have died and an unknown number are still trapped by a huge fire that affected the eight towers of the Wang Fuk Court residential complex this Wednesday, in the northern district of Tai Po, in Hong Kong (), according to official sources cited by the local newspaper. South China Morning Post (SCMP). Firefighters have been fighting the flames and the thick black smoke coming from the towers for more than six hours, 31 stories high and with 2,000 residential apartments inside, in which around 4,600 residents live.
Local television station TVB reported that renovations were being carried out at the complex, using bamboo scaffolding, a factor that contributed to the rapid spread of the flames.
Among the deceased is a member of the fire department, according to the same sources. According to the latest report published by local media, rescue teams have evacuated around twenty injured people, and at least six are in critical condition due to burns. Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of the fire service, has indicated that the very high temperatures inside the buildings are complicating extinguishing tasks, and that falling debris and the scaffolding itself pose an additional risk to emergency personnel.
Chan has avoided offering an estimate on when the flames will be completely controlled, but has acknowledged that the darkness after nightfall is making access to the property and the possibility of climbing to the upper floors even more difficult. 128 fire trucks, 57 ambulances, 767 firefighters and 400 police officers participate in the operation.
Chan Kwong-tak, an 83-year-old resident cited by the SCMP newspaper, has assured that the fire alarms did not sound when the fire started, around 2:00 p.m. local time (7:00 a.m. in mainland Spain), even though the buildings have them. “If someone was sleeping at that time, there was nothing to do,” he told the newspaper. Other residents have also reported that the alarms were not activated, even after they began to smell burning, and that they were alerted by a security guard who warned of the fire door to door, which left them little room to evacuate, according to SCMP.
The head of the Hong Kong Government, John Lee, has called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet and has published a message on his Facebook account in which he expresses his “deep pain and condolences to the families of the deceased and injured.” The Government has set up five shelters for those affected, in which there are already about 700 people.
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a huge concentration of high-rise apartment blocks and buildings in close proximity to each other, which turns any incident into a collective risk and causes an emergency to affect a large number of people.
In the Wang Fuk Court residential complex, around 4,600 residents live in apartments that, on average, are between 37 and 46 square meters. The group of towers is part of the government’s subsidized housing program and has been occupied since 1983, according to the property. A senior police officer has told local journalists that it is impossible to carry out a sweeping operation through all the plants to confirm whether they have been completely evacuated, because the flames have not yet been extinguished.
Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where scaffolding stops in construction. Last March, the Government promised measures to begin phasing out its use, citing security concerns. And he announced that at least 50% of public works should use metal structures.
Fay Siu Sin-man, executive director of the Association for the Rights of Victims of Workplace Accidents, has asked the Government to carry out a thorough investigation into the origin of the fire and has pointed out that this year there have been other fires related to bamboo scaffolding, which have left five fatalities.
