Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in more than 60 years has now claimed at least 44 people with about 280 still missing. Experts have called on changes to building rules in light of the tragedy.
Fire broke out on several apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court on Wednesday afternoon and was still burning in the early hours of Thursday.
The Associated Press news agency reports that operations to put out the blaze could last until Thursday evening.
The housing complex consists of eight buildings with almost 2,000 apartments, housing about 4,800 residents. It was built in the 1980s and has been undergoing major renovations.
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in relation to the fire.
Construction materials under scrutiny
The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but a preliminary investigation found highly flammable styrofoam cloaking lift windows on every floor, which authorities said caused the fire to move more rapidly within the apartment blocks, South China Morning Post reported.
Alex Webb, a group leader and fire safety engineer at CSIRO Infrastructure Technologies, said the fire is likely due to several combustible materials.
“The fire spread at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex is likely due to a combination of factors, including the plastic scaffolding encapsulation, plastic sheeting, polystyrene, the bamboo structural scaffolding and any other flammable components.”
Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad, a senior researcher and global challenge lead from the Urban Transformations Research Centre at Western Sydney University, said preventing this tragedy from happening again requires implementing non-combustible materials in construction.
“Prevention is straightforward in principle: eliminate the fuel or break the path. For occupied towers, mandate non-combustible temporary works (steel/aluminium) or, where bamboo is unavoidable, require pressure-impregnated fire-retardant culms, Class-A flame-retardant netting, and engineered discontinuities, vertical and horizontal fire-stops every few bays and at each floor line.”
Professor Guan Yeoh, from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales, notes that mitigating fire risk is feasible, and the Hong Kong fire should spur change.
“It’s time for change – to remove outdated practices and adopt modern methods of fire safety and protection. Bamboo scaffolding is highly flammable, and strict building regulations should be imposed to ban its use.”