Rescue efforts at Hong Kong blaze end with deaths at 128
Al Jazeera :
Firefighting and rescue operations at Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades have ended, a government spokesperson said, with the death toll rising to 128 and about 200 people still missing.
Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang said on Friday that rescue efforts at the residential development have now wrapped up.
According to the fire service, the flames were “largely extinguished” as of 10:18am (02:18 GMT) on Friday, and “firefighting operations have ended,” the fire service said, announcing the end of its operations.
The eight-tower Wang Fuk Court estate in the northern district of Tai Po, which houses more than 4,600 people, had been undergoing renovations and was wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh when the fire started and quickly spread on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said they had arrested three construction company officials on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows.
On Friday morning, firefighters continued to work at the still-smouldering complex.
“We’ll endeavour to effect forcible entry to all the units of the seven buildings, so as to ensure there are no other possible casualties,” Deputy Fire Services Director Derek Chan told reporters early on Friday.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from outside the residential complex, said firefighters have been going through each of the apartments on Friday trying to find any trapped residents.
“The community is in a deep state of grief,” she said.Chan said 25 calls for help to the Fire Department remain unresolved, including three in recent hours, which would be prioritised.
“Hope they can find more survivors in the building. I think they had tried their best; the firefighters have done a lot,” resident Jacky Kwok said.
“It is a terrible disaster that no one wanted to happen.”
Rescuers had battled intense heat, thick smoke and collapsing scaffolding and debris as they fought to reach residents feared trapped on the upper floors of the complex.
On Thursday, a distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said were housing 900 residents.
Most of the victims were found in two towers in the complex, while firefighters found survivors in several buildings, Chan said, but gave no further details.
Two of the dead were Indonesian nationals working as domestic helpers, the Indonesian consulate said.
Hong Kong has about 368,000 domestic workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers.
The fire is now Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said the government would set up a 300-million Hong Kong dollar ($39m) fund to help residents, while some of China’s biggest listed companies announced donations.