Almost all life-saving fire safety measures failed on the day a devastating blaze tore through a Hong Kong housing complex last year, killing 168 people, a public hearing was told on Thursday.
The November 26 blaze at Wang Fuk Court, a high-rise apartment complex in the financial hub’s Tai Po district, was the world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980.
It engulfed seven of the eight residential towers in the complex, which were undergoing renovations and covered in bamboo scaffolding, protective netting and foam boards that may have contributed to the fire’s rapid spread.
Leading counsel Victor Dawes told the independent committee conducting the hearings that the blaze had “left a scar that is hard to forget” on the city’s collective memory.
“Based on the evidence gathered, on the day of the fire almost all of the life-saving fire safety measures failed because of human factors,” Dawes said on the first day of the hearings.
“This process may be very difficult and heavy... but only this way can we make Hong Kong a safer city,” he said.
Dawes described the blaze as a “facade fire” and said it was the “combined result of multiple factors”.
The committee collected more than a million documents, including text and visual testimony from residents, building workers and firefighters, the hearing was told.
Dawes said that direct evidence of the fire’s cause might never be found, but it was “very likely cigarette butts... residents had complained many times about this”.
“Rules banning smoking on work sites were frequently not followed,” Dawes said as he showed the panel photos and videos of workers smoking on scaffolding that had been shared in residents’ social media groups.
There were gasps from former residents and members of the public when Dawes presented evidence that he said showed contractors had apparently used substandard netting that burned quickly.
“Residents had clearly been misled,” he said.
Clips played at the hearing showed flames shooting up one building and scaffolding falling from the exterior after the fire broke out in the afternoon.
“There’s no fire alarm,” voices from one piece of footage could be heard saying.
Dawes showed a clip of residents at one block attempting to use the fire hose and activate the fire alarm as the fire spread. Both were inoperable.
He also said falling bamboo had “created extreme difficulty for firefighters” and that it had blocked the main escape route for residents of one of the towers less than half an hour after the alarm was raised.
Just over 100 people also watched a livestream of the hearing in a lecture hall at a Hong Kong library arranged by the committee as a satellite location.
Those watching sat grim-faced as the committee played another clip that showed the fire engulfing one of the buildings in less than four minutes.
A 69-year-old man who gave only his surname Law said he had lived at Wang Fuk Court for more than three decades and could not understand why fire alarms did not go off.
“There were a lot of problems on top of problems that were covered up... I’m just angry,” he said after the hearing.
Yip Ka-kui, 68, who lost his wife and home in the fire, told reporters that some of the information presented at the hearing was “pretty explosive”.
“We pray that we will receive the truth,” he said.
More than 4,600 residents lived in the Wang Fuk Court complex at the time of the fire, more than 1,700 aged 60 or older, Dawes said.
Government officials, former residents, the directors of construction firms and members of the Wang Fuk Court management committee are expected to appear at the hearings.
Police are also conducting a criminal investigation and have arrested 38 people on charges including manslaughter and fraud.
Hong Kong’s anti-graft watchdog has also arrested 23 people, including consultants, contractors and members of the owners’ corporation of the complex, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said on Wednesday.
bur-cla-twa/pbt/cms
