Hong Kong apartment fire death toll rises, China drowns out criticism as safety breaches revealed

Hong Kong — As the death toll confirmed by the Fire at apartment complex in Hong Kong rose to at least 151 on Monday, officials said. investigation into the fire had discovered that the mesh used to cover scaffolding during ongoing renovations did not meet fire safety codes.

Frustration over what appear to have been clear safety lapses before the devastating fire, which took more than two days to extinguish and engulfed seven of the complex’s eight towers, was being met with government measures to quell criticism.

Initial tests of the net covering the scaffolding showed it met safety standards, but Hong Kong officials said Monday that investigators had since gained access to more areas to collect samples, including from higher floors.

Hong Kong Chief Secretary Eric Chan said seven of the 20 new samples of synthetic mesh did not meet fire safety standards, suggesting contractors may have chosen cost savings over the safety of residents and workers.

“They just wanted to make money at the expense of people’s lives,” Chan told reporters.

Recovery teams found another eight bodies, including those of three firefighters previously located but which workers had not been able to recover, Tsang Shuk-yin, head of the Hong Kong police’s victim investigation unit, told reporters on Monday. He said more than 30 people were still listed as missing, but some were likely among the nearly 40 sets of remains recovered but not yet identified.

“We’ll have to wait until we get through seven blocks before we can make a final report,” he said, adding that some remains were probably so burned that identification might be impossible.

About 4,600 people lived in the eight buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex, which is located in the Hong Kong suburb of Tai Po, not far from the border with mainland China.

Monday was to be the last day of an official period of mourning declared by authorities, and thousands of people came to pay their respects, laying flowers, toys and notes for the victims, many of whom were children and the elderly.

Police have released photographs from inside the charred buildings, where they found the bodies of residents who had tried to escape the inferno on stairwells and on rooftops.

A deeply distraught man at the scene Monday told News themezone that his children had just identified the remains of his 66-year-old wife, who died in the fire. He said he was demanding answers from the government about how the disaster could have happened.

Anger has grown in Hong Kong since the fire broke out on Wednesday morning last week. It had already been revealed that fire alarms were turned off in the complex, and for months residents had issued warnings about what they believed were hazardous materials covering the buildings during renovation.

As of Monday, 14 people had been arrested for alleged involuntary manslaughter and authorities did not rule out more arrests.

The level of public angst has shaken Beijing, to the point that the central government issued a warning to Hong Kongers against any protests or the use of fire to “disrupt” life in the city.

The warning drew parallels with the Repression of pro-democracy protests that paralyzed the city in 2019.

Three people were arrested Monday under a sweeping national security law imposed in the wake of those protests. Their lawyer says they were detained for starting a petition calling for an independent investigation into the fire, a sign of how concerned Beijing is that the tragedy could spark new civil unrest in the previously semi-autonomous southern metropolis.