HONG KONG APARTMENT FIRE KILLS 94, INJURES 70, 100’S MISSING DUE TO BAMBOO USE

Written by Michael Thervil

HONG KONG APARTMENT FIRE KILLS 94, INJURES 70, 100’S MISSING DUE TO BAMBOO USE | PHOTO BY REUTERS

[Hong Kong fire bamboo apartments] Wednesday, A high-rise complex fire which stretched across the span of seven of eight buildings in Wang Fuk Court, located in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong resulted in the deaths of 94 people and another 70 people injured and 100’s missing. It was also reported that 11 firefighters have also been injured. A total of nine people have been evacuated to shelters since the fire outbreak. While how the fire started is currently unknown, it has been determined that the use of bamboo which was used in the construction of the scaffolding in conjunction with plastic safety netting played a major role in the blaze. Adding fuel to the fire were the accompanying forecasted winds. Even though it took 24 hours for firefighters to control the blaze, the towers burned for over 2 days.

John Lee, who is the Chief Executive of Hong Kong stated that the Hong Kong government will pay out HK$300 million ($39 million) to aid those affected by the blaze. Other Chinese companies that pledged assistance were Xpeng, Jack Ma, Tencent, Geely, and Xiaomi. According to the Chinese officials, not only did it take over 1,000 firefighters, but it’s also suspected that some of the materials used in the internal structure of the building that were utilized by the construction company failed to meet the fire-resistant standards set by the Chinese government. senior superintendent of police Eileen Chung, stated to the Press:

“We have reason to believe that those in charge of the construction company were grossly negligent.”

HONG KONG APARTMENT FIRE KILLS 94, INJURES 70, 100’S MISSING DUE TO BAMBOO USE | CHAN LONG HEI / AP

Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was the construction company that oversaw the renovation project and the Directors of the company, an engineer, and three other men were arrested on manslaughter charges. It is currently speculated that other charges such as “negligence” are set to follow. The construction project consisted of roughly 2,000 apartments and house an estimated 4,800 residents. The Hong Kong anticorruption agency has also joined the investigation to see if any corruption played a part when it came to the decision-making practices and actions within construction companies.

Although the use of bamboo for scaffolding is not unusual, there have been plans to phase out its use. The reason that was given as to why bamboo was used instead of aluminum or steel was because bamboo was not only lighter in comparison to its metallic counterparts; but its perceived as less of a risk if a scaffolding collapse were to occur easier to transport. Bamboo is also utilized for temporary construction projects as well. To date, the use of bamboo for scaffolding has led to the deaths of 23 people since 2018. This week's blaze has been hailed as the biggest fire of it’s kinds since both 1948 when 176 people died in a warehouse fire followed by a commercial building fire that claimed the lives of 41 people in the shopping district of Kowloon, Hong Kong.