cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/42719582
At least 128 people have died in one of Hong Kong’s deadliest-ever blazes that broke out Wednesday and devastated a multi-block housing estate.
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But Hong Kong has been the site of many significant fires in the past, which, like the Wang Fuk Court incident, have had various specific causes, but have also often shared some factors that contributed to their deadliness. ...
Density
Hong Kong ... is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with 6,900 residents per sq km. Many buildings are built close to each other, especially in Hong Kong Island and neighboring Kowloon, making it easy for fires to spread.
However, the city also owes much of its high population density to the prevalence of subdivided flats—small cut rooms, sometimes resembling animal cages—where residents can cram and reside in for a fraction of the cost of a standard Hong Kong flat.
In April 2024, a fire involving a 60-year-old tenement block in Yau Ma Tei in the Kowloon area left five people dead and dozens injured. In an op-ed at the time about the risks associated with these homes, the South China Morning Post explained that, while a cigarette may have caused the fire, firefighters said subdivided units and “structural alterations” in the building complicated rescue efforts.
Thirteen years earlier, a fire in Mong Kok, also in the Kowloon area, left nine dead, 34 injured, and more than a hundred people homeless. Authorities then pointed out that the danger was exacerbated by the subdivided flats cutting off points of access for the building.
**Economic struggle **
Hong Kong is also among the most expensive places to live globally, and both individuals and businesses in the Chinese enclave often seek cost-cutting shortcuts that, in the case of fires, have proven immensely costly in the end.
Subdivided flats are a response to an expensive housing market, and many residents have foregone safety requirements for the sake of having a place to live.
Fireproofing is also expensive. In the 2024 Yau Ma Tei fire, the building’s owners reportedly encountered difficulties in raising funds to comply with fire safety guidelines, with a district councillor noting that “the increasingly high cost of upgrading fire prevention facilities and equipment, especially in the bidding process, had not helped,” according to SCMP.
Bamboo scaffolding, which has been linked to the latest conflagration’s devastation, is also known as a cheap alternative for construction businesses despite the city’s Development Bureau pushing to “drive a wider adoption of metal scaffolds in public building works progressively,” with a bureau official citing bamboo’s “intrinsic weaknesses such as variation in mechanical properties, deterioration over time and high combustibility, etc, giving rise to safety concerns.”
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Lax enforcement
Politicians in the city have flagged that many of the city’s buildings are rapidly aging and in need of better fireproofing.
But previous fires have shown that compliance with government orders has been poor. In the 2024 Yau Ma Tei fire, the city’s Buildings Department already issued fire safety orders to the owners of the block in question in 2008—including calling for them to replace fire doors and outfit the building with more fire-resistant material. But SCMP reported that despite the department’s follow-up, the order had not been followed ...
Latest government data show that more than 8,600 fire hazard abatement notices have been issued in Hong Kong as of January, following inspections of old, high-risk buildings. More than 300 of these notices involved prosecutions or convictions.
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I'm so frustrated that this article, and many other sources - including news programs, are not talking about the lack of alarms in the buildings. I agree that the materials and density were terrible and created a catastrophic situation for the structures, but the lack of alarms to alert residents is absolutely ridiculous and is what made this such a huge tragedy for the people who died.
If the buildings' alarms aren't working, then they should be on "fire watch" with 24/7 personnel ready to alert people on every floor where the alarm isn't working. Does that cost too much? Then fix the fucking alarms as a top priority. This is especially true when there are no automatic sprinklers, which sounds like is often the case in Hong Kong.
There are reports that people were getting calls from their friends and relatives and that's how they learned about the fire. People were waking up to the smell of smoke without an alarm going off. WTF. That's so far beyond acceptable, I don't know what else to say.
I travel a lot and I always bring my own smoke and CO detector with me. This is an example of why.
There are reports from the residents saying that the renovation workers intentionally disabled the alarms, to make their work a little easier.
Just read a [BBC article]https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8e5j20g27o():