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The death toll in the deadly Tai Po blaze has risen to 146, according to Hong Kong authorities, as personnel from the police’s victims identification unit continue combing Wang Fuk Court.
A total of 79 people were injured, police added in an update announced late Sunday afternoon about the fatal fire that began on Wednesday.
Cheng Ka-chun, head of the police’s Disaster Victims Identification Unit (DVIU), told reporters that police had finished searching four out of the seven blocks in Wang Fuk Court that were engulfed in flames.
Police completed their sweep of Wang Kin House and Wang Tai House on Sunday, and would continue searching Wang Shing House. Bodies were found in flats, stairwells, corridors, and rooftops, Cheng said.
Their previous sweeps of Wang Yan House and Wang Tao House, which finished on Saturday, did not yield any bodies.
A total of 30 bodies were found on Sunday, said Chief Superintendent Karen Tsang Shuk-yin of the police force’s casualty inquiry unit.
They included 12 bodies that were discovered earlier by the Fire Services Department but had not yet been removed from the buildings and had not been added to the official toll, as well as 18 others found in apartment units.
Cheng said the darkness in the scorched flats was a major obstacle in police’s work of locating bodies.
“After the fire, many of the blocks, many areas are burned black. The flats are completely dark, and there is no electricity or normal lighting,” he said.
“Even when there is some sun in the day, the light that comes through the windows is insufficient,” Cheng told reporters, adding that police were relying on light from their headlamps and their phones.
Missing persons
The DVIU began entering Wang Fuk Court to locate bodies on Saturday.
Asked how long the entire search operation would take, Lam Man-han, a regional commander in the police force’s New Territories North, estimated it would take three to four weeks.
She said the timeline looked optimistic, with four buildings already done and three more to go.
But Lam said she would not shorten the estimation. “Those remaining [blocks] are the difficult ones, so I have to be very prudent,” she said.
Tsang said the police’s casualty enquiry unit had tracked down 159 people reported as missing and marked them as safe.
Another 92 people reported as missing were found to have died in the fire, and 37 were discovered to have been injured, Tsang added.
Police are still working on over 40 cases, after ruling out over 100 for reasons including that the missing persons were found not to have lived in Wang Fuk Court and people who made the reports were only able to give scarce information.
Meanwhile, 54 bodies are still waiting to be identified, Tsang said.
Renovation project
When the fire hit on Wednesday, the housing estate had been undergoing a large-scale renovation project for over a year, and its buildings were encased in nets and scaffolding.
Foam boards were also used as part of protective materials, which authorities have pointed to as contributing to the fire’s rapid spread.
The government announced on Saturday that it had suspended 30 construction projects around the city, most of them managed by Prestige Construction & Engineering Company Limited, which oversaw the renovation at Wang Fuk Court.
Authorities cited “a lack of confidence in its ability to ensure site safety.”
Three men linked to the construction company have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and corruption. Eight others have been arrested on suspicion of corruption.
Asked how the police’s investigation was going, Lam said she did not have anything to share.
“The area of the fire is so big and we have a lot of evidence collection procedures to complete. I don’t have any [updates] on this part,” she said.
