By Mei Mei Chu and Joyce Zhou
HONG KONG, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Some Hong Kong residents forced to flee their homes as a deadly fire closed in a week ago returned to the scorched complex on Wednesday to retrieve belongings, as others struggled to rebuild lives after a disaster that killed at least 156 people.
Carrying large suitcases and empty bags, residents of the only block in the complex not destroyed by the 40-hour inferno were escorted to their homes by government staff and given a 90-minute window to pack up belongings. Seven other blocks were engulfed by the fire.
All residents of the Wang Fuk Court complex, numbering over 4,000, were displaced by the city’s worst blaze in decades and many are being put up in temporary housing. Authorities have not said when residents of the unaffected building can return as they collect evidence in a criminal probe.
“My whole life is there,” said a 60-year-old woman surnamed Lam, who was waiting with recyclable bags for her daughter, before going into her apartment.
Police continue to scour the seven burnt-out buildings.
The search may take weeks due to the hazardous conditions and difficulty in collecting bodies, some of which have been found on rooftops and stairwells and others reduced to nothing more than ashes, authorities have said.
Some 30 people are still missing.
Fifteen people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in the police’s probe into the cause of the fire. Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body has also launched an investigation, and the city’s leader on Tuesday promised an independent judge-led examination of the tragedy.
TEMPORARY HOUSING INADEQUATE FOR MANY
More than 2,600 residents have been put in temporary accommodation, the government said, with 1,013 residents staying in hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 1,607 residents have moved into transitional housing units.
“I can’t sleep at night, thinking about my home. Everything that I have earned for decades is gone,” said a 71-year-old woman surnamed Leung, who had come back to the complex with her husband and daughter to speak with support staff there.
Leung and her husband had been put in transitional housing last week after the fire torched their apartment. However she said the location was too far from public transport and too small to house both of them. They have opted to stay with their daughter instead as they search for more suitable housing.
Leung’s 41-year-old daughter, Bonnie Leung, said it was “unfathomable that such a tragedy, so many deaths, can happen in Hong Kong.”
“Dad and mum, and many residents have struggled for so many years. Having a home here gave us peace, it is very painful to lose everything.”
INVESTIGATIONS ONGOING, REVIEW OF BUILDING RENOVATIONS
Amid calls for transparency and accountability, Hong Kong’s leader John Lee has ordered a committee, headed by a judge, to investigate the cause of the deadly fire and review oversight of building renovations.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year they faced “relatively low fire risks” after they complained about fire hazards posed by the renovations, the city’s Labour Department said.
Authorities have pointed to substandard plastic mesh and insulation foam used during renovation works at the high-rise estate for fuelling the blaze.
Legislative elections due to take place on Sunday will go ahead as planned, Lee said, drawing criticism from residents including a 31-year-old woman surnamed Yeung.
“I think it’s quite ridiculous to continue organising the election. Hong Kong people are still under immense trauma after the incident.”
Turnout for that vote – in which only candidates screened by the government as “patriots” can run – could serve as a barometer of public frustration over the handling of the fire.
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu, Joyce Zhou and Laurie Chen; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by John Geddie and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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