Anger grows and questions remain as blaze kills at least 83

Anger is turning to anger in Hong Kong after a massive fire killed at least 83 people and seriously injured dozens in a densely populated subsidized housing estate on Wednesday.

Officials say poor-quality mesh and plastic sheets on the buildings’ windows may have contributed to the fire, which raged for more than a day in some blocks. About 300 people are still missing.

Questions are being raised about how the fire at Wang Fook Court spread so quickly and who is to be held responsible, with many Hong Kongers calling it a “man-made disaster”.

Three people in charge of renovation works at the complex have been arrested on murder charges, and authorities have launched a corruption investigation.

A post has gone viral on social media following the fire, which reads: “This is no accident”.

Several residents have revealed in interviews that the fire alarm did not go off when the fire broke out.

Kiko Ma, who owns an apartment in Wang Phuc Court, says the alarm was set off amid renovation works, as construction workers regularly used fire escapes to get in and out of the building.

Ms. Ma lives in Canada with her family, but visits her Hong Kong apartment several times a year.

“This could have been prevented… a lot of people didn’t do their duty,” the 33-year-old man told the BBC. He claimed that the renovation company used “poor quality, flammable materials”.

Residents have often seen construction workers smoking and found cigarette butts on their window sills, she adds.

“People kept asking what would happen if there was a fire. Everyone was very worried about that.”

It is Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in at least 63 years – already surpassing the death toll from the August 1962 fire in the Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, which killed 44 and displaced hundreds.

Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s north-eastern Tai Po district, built in the 1980s, consists of eight 31-storey buildings, seven of which were destroyed in the fire. Apartments here are sold at discounted prices, but day-to-day affairs at the estate are managed by privately appointed firms.

As of the 2021 census, the complex was home to approximately 4,600 people – about 40% of whom were 65 or older.

The city fire department said Thursday that firefighters faced major challenges in rescuing residents, including high temperatures, the risk of further scaffold collapse and the small and crowded interiors of the apartments.

Hong Kong is famous for its small, dense inner-city housing, where many public rental housing tenants have an average of only 14.1 square meters of living space.

It is unclear how many people were in Vang Phuc Court at the time of the fire, but hundreds of residents have been moved to temporary shelters, and some are being allocated emergency housing units.

While police are investigating whether the mesh mesh, plastic and canvas sheets used during the renovation met fire safety standards, some experts believe that bamboo scaffolding connecting the apartment blocks helped fuel the fire.

Such scaffoldings are an iconic sight throughout Hong Kong, and are widely used in construction.

Earlier this year, officials announced plans to phase out bamboo in favor of stronger, fire-resistant steel, citing bamboo’s flammability and deterioration over time.

Residents of Wang Phuc Court had expressed unease about the renovation plans when they were announced last year. Reports of those concerns have now resurfaced online, leading to accusations of a lack of transparency.

Another homeowner, who was abroad at the time of the fire, said the plans were “fundamentally questionable”.

“(Those in charge) used small favors to encourage elderly residents to support their plans,” he wrote in a comment on Instagram.

Sales associate Mr Lai, whom the BBC agreed to refer to only by his last name, says residents of Wang Fuc Court had previously questioned the high cost of the renovation works.

He said calls from some residents to re-elect the estate’s management committee had fallen on deaf ears. This week’s fire is not an isolated incident, Mr Lai said, claiming that construction companies “often prioritize cost efficiency” over safety.

The fire broke out last month after bamboo scaffolding at a building in Hong Kong’s Central District caught fire, he said.

“When similar incidents occur, they raise questions about whether (there are) systemic weaknesses.”

Hong Kong authorities on Thursday ordered inspections of all residential properties undergoing “major repairs” to check the “safety of scaffolding and construction materials”.