as a hong konger i feel the need to speak out and give a local's perspective on the fire that has ravaged tai po's wang fuk court because there's so much disinformation and western gazed reports regarding it.
a quick background to the incident: a fire broke out in the housing estate of wang fuk court and caused the burning of 7/8 blocks in the estate. so far a total of 128 deaths have been reported with around 200 more missing and 79 injured. the fire burned for a total of 43 hours. the housing estate was undergoing a renovation project that cost 330 million HKD (around 42mil USD) when the construction material of one block caught on fire and subsequently spread to the rest of the buildings. around 4.6k people live there and majority of them are elderly.
a lot of the media is blaming the bamboo scaffolding for the cause of the fire's spread. that is not true and is a distraction from the actual problem of corruption that caused this avoidable tragedy.
for starters, bamboo scaffolding is a centuries old practice that is a recognized cultural heritage in hong kong. everything in hk, including the iconic skyline, was built using bamboo scaffolding. centuries of cantonese opera shows hosted in bamboo theatres had hot food stalls with no issues of burning. it is not because it's cheaper or from an inflated sense of nostalgia but a factual thing you can easily confirm by looking up any heat test with bamboo. but the most obvious proof you can find is that the site itself shows the scaffolding mostly in-tact while the safety net is almost completely gone.
which brings me to my next point about the nets. they have been proven again and again by residents own tests to not meet standards of being fire-retardant. there have been complaints made an entire year before that were dismissed as inflammatory rumors aimed at hindering the renovation. this is a test from TVB news showing how a net with fire-retardant properties vs a net without would react under fire. but if that's not enough, here are multiple videos showcasing how the fire's spread was completely accelerated by the nets flammability.
video showcasing the start of the fire (with jumpcuts showing the spread within a 10 minute window)
大埔宏福苑今日（26日）下午發生五級嚴重火警，造成13死多人傷，包括一名消防員在救援期間殉職。火警最先由宏昌閣外牆棚架冒起火種，其後火勢以極高速度沿棚架向上蔓延，並波及宏泰閣、宏新閣等多座大廈，部分單位更被火焰燒入室內。 網民 striking_biking 於Threads上
video showcasing another block of the estate that ignites into a chimney of flames within 30 seconds
（backup) 左邊一棟，由外圍開始見到火到燒到頂， 30秒！ 就算有咩警鐘都唔會有用
rather conveniently as well is that construction sites across hk the day after have begun removing the safety nets. i know of people working in construction who can corroborate as well.
as always, the incentive for such corner cutting is money. fire-retardant nets cost 6-10 times more than regular nets. among this was the use of styrofoam boards as opposed to metal for blocking out the windows within the construction site, which as another factor in aiding the spread of the fire.
this renovation project was the most expensive out of the 3 proposed for the estate. it was majority paid by the residents, with each tenant required to pay 160k for the project. i would also like to add that as wang fuk court is a part of the home ownership scheme, they are owned by the housing authority, which is an agency of the hong kong government.
330 million in funds yet they could not even afford the bare minimum of fire proof materials? their greed and corruption is what turned the housing estate into a death trap for the thousands living there, NOT the bamboo scaffolding.
another tragic (and suspicious) factor in the deadliness of this incident is that the fire alarm system for all 8 buildings failed to sound, which likely caused the deaths of many more as most people reported not even knowing there was a fire until either the smoke reached them or they could see the flames.
the government's response to this has been to immediately roll out policies to switch to steel scaffolding as opposed to addressing the real issue of corruption involved. likely because of the election coming up next week (which has still not yet been cancelled despite the tragedy) where there are candidates directly involved or connected with district councilors that allowed this to happen by denying and shutting down resident's concerns. people are also concerned that this is just another method of streamlining the process of outsourcing labor from mainland, as their standard is using steel scaffolding and their labor is far cheaper. this would also allow the mainland industry of providing steel scaffoldings to break into hk.
majority of the relief effort has been funded by or provided the citizens of hk themselves. volunteers have poured in from across hk as well as the bordering shenzhen to help deliver supplies for displaced residents. if there is one feel good thing to take away from this incident is that we fucking care about each other, far more than this shit ass government. the initial relief funds offered by the government was a mere 10k per family, just plain disrespectful when they've lost their everything. (as of right now it has been raised to 50k, likely due to backlash but it still does not compensate even the amount that they've paid for the renovations that took their home)
i mostly wrote this post as a half rant and half psa to let people know from a hkgers pov the blatant display of greed and negligence that allowed for something like this to happen. this is not a tragic accident but a situation so preventable that all the people involved should all be charged with murder. this is the deadliest disaster hk has faced in the last 70 years, and the death toll is only expected to rise as the fire brigade actually starts breaking into flats individually.
hk is very small so most people, myself included either know or know of someone directly affected by the tragedy. about 50% of hkgers, again myself included, also live in these types of housing estates. i'm deeply disturbed and appalled at the implications and would like more people to know how complicit our government is in this incident.
