Hong Kong grassroots community groups have sprung into action to coordinate and provide assistance to survivors of the Wang Fuk Court fire, a catastrophic blaze that has left at least 128 people confirmed dead, while hundreds are still missing.
Restaurants, churches and gyms in the Tai Po area, where the Wang Phuc Court housing estate is located, have been turned into temporary shelters for people in need of clothing, food and information as a result of the tragedy.
Some have compared the sudden and well-organized mobilization of volunteers to the support networks that emerged during the 2014 and 2019 pro-democracy protests, when thousands of Hong Kongers helped deliver supplies to the front lines of the demonstrations.
“Since the two movements in 2014 and 2019, citizen-led supply mobilization has become part of our muscle memory,” said former district councilor Michael Moe, who now lives in the UK.
A crowd-sourced web app collected reports from people about each building, identifying individual apartments in each tower along with available details of residents. People can mark themselves as safe, or submit information about who is still missing from certain apartments.
Another website has an interactive map that shows where supply stations are available in the Tai Po area. There is also a forum for coordinating volunteer shifts.
There are also several fundraising platforms that are collecting donations, including the government’s “Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po”, which has received a startup donation of HKD$300m (£29,172,600) from the government.
Messages flooded social media platforms and messaging apps with call-outs for help. On Telegram, the encrypted messaging app that was widely used during pro-democracy protests, channels appeared for various duties such as Tai Po Driver, Tai Po Assistant and Tai Po Fire Support. Users post lists of needed supplies, such as folding tables, mattresses, and cleaning supplies, in various locations. Many groups already have thousands of members.
The Hong Kong Red Cross said it had eight to 10 days’ supply in its blood banks and appealed to residents to book appointments for future donations.
Elsewhere, a group of Hong Kong lawyers posted a call-out on social media for volunteers to support victims with tenancy and land law questions, employment issues and other legal matters arising from the deadly fire. The group said its goal was to produce a list of frequently asked questions to distribute to leading NGOs and affected individuals to “help them understand their legal rights, options and possible next steps in a clear and accessible way”. The group said the content would be available in Chinese, English and possibly other languages used by ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.
At least two Indonesian domestic workers are confirmed dead in the fire.
Questions are already circling as to how the fire could spread so quickly across the seven affected tower blocks of Wang Fuc Court. Residents had complained for more than a year about potential fire hazards in the building related to construction work involving bamboo scaffolding and covering the blocks in green netting. Officials also pointed to the highly flammable Styrofoam used in elevator window coverings on each floor.
On Friday, fire services chief Andy Yeung confirmed what many residents had been claiming for days: no fire alarms went off in any of the towers.
Three people associated with contractor Prestige have been arrested on suspicion of murder. The South China Morning Post reported that before winning the contract for the renovation works at Wang Fuk Court, Prestige was convicted of two security offenses in 2023. Prestige has not commented on the disaster.
Another crowd-sourced web project is an initiative to preserve the minutes of the Vang Phuc Court Homeowners Association meetings, where concerns were raised about the bidding process for renovation works.
The Labor Department told residents last year that the risk of fire at the site was relatively low. Nevertheless, it said the contractor had been repeatedly warned in writing about other unsafe working practices at Vang Phuc Court.
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