Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency yesterday said it arrested eight people connected to the renovation of the high-rise apartments that were engulfed in a massive fire that left at least 128 people dead and many more unaccounted for.
The seven men and one woman were scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultant company and project managers supervising the renovation, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said.
The agency also searched their offices, seizing documents and bank records.
Photo: Reuters
The investigation over possible corruption in the renovation project was launched on Thursday after the fatal fire broke out on Wednesday.
Hong Kong firefighters found dozens more bodies yesterday in an intensive apartment-by-apartment search of Wang Fuk Court, where a massive fire engulfed seven buildings.
First responders found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, Hong Kong Fire Services Director Andy Yeung said.
The blaze jumped rapidly from one building to the next, as bamboo scaffolding covered in netting and foam panels apparently installed by a construction company caught fire.
Crews prioritized apartments from which they had received emergency calls during the blaze but were unable to reach in the hours that the fire burned out of control, Hong Kong Fire Services Deputy Director Derek Armstrong Chan said.
It took firefighters about 24 hours to bring the fire under control, and it was not fully extinguished until yesterday morning. Even two days after the fire began, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.
About 200 people remain unaccounted for, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang said. That included 89 bodies that have not yet been identified.
More bodies might be recovered, authorities said, although crews have finished a search for anyone living trapped inside.
More than 2,300 firefighters and medical personnel were involved in the operation, and 12 firefighters were among the 79 people injured, Yeung said, adding that one firefighter was killed.
The apartment complex of eight 31-story buildings in Tai Po District was built in the 1980s and had been undergoing a major renovation. It had almost 2,000 apartments and about 4,800 residents.
Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence, police said.
Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but documents posted to the homeowners association’s Web site showed that Prestige Construction and Engineering Co was in charge of renovations.
Authorities suspected some materials on the exterior walls of the buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, allowing the unusually fast spread of the fire.
Police also said they found plastic foam panels — which are highly flammable — attached to the windows on each floor of the one unaffected tower. The panels were believed to have been installed by the construction company, but the purpose was not clear.
It appears that the fire started on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings, and then spread rapidly, as the foam panels caught fire, Tang said.
“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang added.
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