As firefighters finally extinguished the last remaining hotspots on a few floors in two blocks at Hong Kong’s Tai Po housing estate on Thursday night, the death toll continued to climb. Each hour brought fresh grief as relatives learned of the deaths of their loved ones and more distress to those waiting to hear from the missing. At least 128 people are known to have died and dozens are still missing.
Many of the stories were horribly similar to those told by survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, including those of phone conversations with those trapped inside burning buildings. There was a grim echo of Grenfell too in how the fire swept upwards so quickly, first in one of the 31-storey buildings and then spreading to six others.
At Grenfell it was flammable material in the building’s cladding that accelerated the fire’s rise but in Tao Po, the focus is on two factors. One is Styrofoam found around windows near lifts in all the buildings and the other is bamboo scaffolding outside and mesh netting and sheeting around the structures.
Three people, two directors and one engineering consultant from the construction company that was renovating the buildings, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
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“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” said Hong Kong police superintendent Eileen Chung.
The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that the contractor had breached safety regulations on other projects on multiple occasions. Hong Kong’s government said the firm is currently working on 11 other projects in the city.
The fire has raised questions about the use of bamboo scaffolding in construction and renovation projects, which is a common feature in the city. Bamboo scaffolding is flexible and it can be cut to size easily, an advantage in a densely populated city like Hong Kong where buildings are often very close to one another, sometimes at irregular angles.
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But bamboo is combustible and it deteriorates over time and Hong Kong said last March that 50 per cent of new public buildings would have to use metal scaffolding rather than bamboo. But the authorities said on Thursday that they would now make the change as soon as possible.
Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, has ordered inspections of all housing estates in the city undergoing major renovations. The city faces legislative elections on December 7th, although only government-approved candidates can take part, and Lee is considering whether he should postpone them.
