Hong Kong mourns victims of blaze as search for remains continues | News

At least 128 people died and 200 are missing after the fire broke out in the towers housing 4,600 people.

People in Hong Kong are mourning the deaths of at least 128 people who died in the territory’s biggest fire in decades at an eight-apartment residential complex.

Flags outside central government offices were flown at half-mast on Saturday as Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, gathered to pay tribute to those lost at the Wang Fuk Court estate after the fire on Wednesday.

Officials said condolence books have been set up at 18 locations around the former British colony for the public to pay tribute.

At the residential complex site, families and bereaved people gathered to lay flowers.

As of Friday, only 39 of the victims had been identified, leaving families with the difficult task of sifting through photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.

The number of victims could still rise dramatically as nearly 200 people remain missing, with authorities announcing the end of the search for survivors on Friday.

But identification work and the search for remains continues, as Lee said the government was setting up a fund with a capital of 300 million Hong Kong dollars ($39m) to help residents.

The local community is also mobilizing hundreds of volunteers to help the victims, including distributing food and other essential items. Some of China’s biggest companies have also promised to donate.

The Wang Fuk Court fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948, when a warehouse fire killed 176 people.

According to local authorities, at least 11 people have been arrested in connection with the tragedy.

These include two directors of a firm identified by the government for carrying out maintenance on the towers for over a year and an engineering consultant, who faces murder charges for using unsafe materials.

The towers, located in the northern district of Tai Po, were being renovated, with highly flammable bamboo scaffolding and green netting used to cover the building believed to be a major contributor to the rapid spread of the fire.

Most of the victims were found in two towers of the complex, with seven of the eight towers suffering extensive damage, including flammable foam boards used by the maintenance company to seal and protect windows.

The fatal incident has been compared to the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people in 2017, which was blamed on flammable cladding on the tower’s exterior as well as government and construction industry failures.

“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the horrific fires in Hong Kong,” the Grenfell United Survivors group said in a brief statement on social media.

“To families, friends and communities, we stand with you. You are not alone.”