Remarks by SHYA and SLW at media session regarding follow-up work on No. 5 alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po
The Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak, and the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, met the media today (November 29) regarding the follow-up work on the No. 5 alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, after attending a radio programme. Following are their remarks at the media session:
Reporter: Miss Mak, you earlier mentioned that the Government is planning to roll out an e-platform for people who are willing to donate supplies to those in need to register on the platform. Could you tell us maybe how soon the public can expect the platform to be set up? Would the Government consider adding more services? Given that we can see a lot of volunteers at Tai Po, apart from offering supplies, some of them are offering like counselling services.
Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs: Definitely, the e-platform is going to be launched in these few days, the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry has talked to me that the platform can be rolled out in these few days. Before the rolling out of the platform, the public can reach us through our WhatsApp hotline, 9213 2388. If anybody wants to offer voluntary services or resources that can be offered to our residents, please do register through this Whatsapp platform. Moreover, the Information Services Department has already launched a website for this incident, the website address is www.taipofire.gov.hk. We have provided all the relevant information, including government hotlines and services available by the NGOs. The public can find the appropriate information through this website, thank you.
Reporter: Mr Sun, you earlier mentioned that a notice was issued last week on the fire prevention because there are reports saying that workers were seen smoking at the site. In your point of view, what can the Government do more to ensure that, contractors in similar cases really take action to avoid violating rules and regulations or even possibly leading to incidents like this? Also, we know that a number of domestic helpers were still missing in the incident and many of the Filipinos or Indonesians are still looking for them. Will the Government help them, and does the Government have any idea on how to assist these people?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Thank you. Since July last year, the Labour Department (LD) has conducted six rounds of inspections to the Wang Fuk Court site. Over the 16 inspections, the LD has issued six improvement notices and also carried out three prosecutions, mainly concerning safety of workers. The major concern at that time was the safety of working at height. This is the major concern. During the inspections, the LD has also issued written warning to the contractors over the importance of fire safety. The last inspection was conducted on November 20. At that inspection, the LD also issued a written warning to the contractor, reminding it of the importance of fire safety. It is because one of the complaints received was about smoking of workers at the site. The LD have taken a precautionary measure of warning the contractors.
As for the foreign domestic helpers, the LD is also working together with the two Consulates in Hong Kong. That includes a visit on-site to Tai Po so that they could look for, and also help the foreign domestic helpers on site. We are receiving more information from the two Consulates, including confirmed death of at least two Indonesian foreign domestic helpers and also a number of them are still missing. I have to thank the foreign domestic helpers at Wang Fuk Court. We understand many of them took care of elderly people and children at the Court. We know, many of them stayed inside together with their employers, taking care of them even at the height of the fire. You can be rest assured, we will provide all the necessary assistance to all the foreign domestic workers and make sure their stay in Hong Kong is safe, and to cater to their needs.
Reporter: How would the condolence money be distributed to domestic helpers?
Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs: The Government will offer $200,000 condolence donation to those families with deceased. Social workers from the Social Welfare Department will contact these families and facilitate the distribution of the money.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
Photo by Bastille Post
Government announces updates on follow-up work on Tai Po fire
The three task forces set up by the Government for the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po - the Task Force on Investigation and Regulation, the Task Force on Emergency Support and Fund-Raising, and the Task Force on Emergency Accommodation Arrangements - are making full efforts to follow up on the support, relief, and investigation work related to the incident. Details are as follows:
Financial and welfare support
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For the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, established by the Government, donations received have reached $2.5 billion as of noon today (December 4). In addition to the start-up capital of $300 million from the Government, the fund's total has now reached around $2.8 billion. The fund will be used to assist residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support.
The Government earlier announced that the Support Fund will provide families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 67 cases have been processed, and disbursements are under way. In addition, the Government announced that the Support Fund will provide a living allowance of $50,000 to each affected household. As of today, 674 cases have been processed, and disbursements are ongoing. The Government today further announced that the living allowance is increased from $50,000 to $100,000.
In addition, the Government has so far disbursed an emergency subsidy of $10,000 to 1 929 households.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1 700 affected households so far to register them for the "one social worker per household" follow-up service. SWD staff also paid a visit to the affected residents staying in transitional housing units in Yuen Long today, and distributed Octopus cards with a face value of $2,000 to facilitate their daily travels and address their imminent needs. The SWD will maintain liaison with the affected households to provide all necessary assistance while fully supporting the relief work of the Government. Those not yet in touch with the SWD are advised to leave their contact information by calling 182 183 as soon as possible.
To further strengthen support for those affected by the Tai Po fire, under the directive of the Financial Secretary’s co-ordination meeting with the financial regulators, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Association of Banks today met again with 28 retail banks (including digital banks) and introduced additional measures to continue assisting those affected with a compassionate approach and flexible arrangements. For more details, please refer to the HKMA's press release.
Accommodation support
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As of this morning, a total of 1 241 residents have been accommodated, through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps, or hotel rooms. Another 2 235 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society. Moreover, the Tai Po District Office continues to operate a temporary shelter at Tai Po Community Centre, which remains open to residents in need. The other temporary shelter at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall will remain in operation until the existing users have relocated to arranged emergency accommodations.
The Transport Department (TD) has been steering public transport operators to strengthen services of franchised buses, green minibuses and residents' services by deploying additional vehicles and manpower to support residents affected by the fire who have been admitted into transitional housing in various districts, allowing them to connect with other services to commute between different districts. The TD will continue to maintain close liaison with operating organisations of the transitional housing projects concerned and public transport operators to cater for residents' commuting needs.
Relief supplies and donations
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The supplies donation online platform (www.taipodonation.hk), established by the Government and the information technology sector, continues to operate, facilitating the registration of supplies donations from organisations and the public. The Government has so far received over 1 300 registrations, of which approximately 30 per cent were submitted by organisations, whereas the others were contributed by the public. The various registered donation items include food and beverages, clothing, daily necessities, beddings, and electrical appliances. The Government is actively assessing residents’ actual needs through the relevant policy bureau, Government departments, and service organisations for the matching of donated supplies in order to distribute appropriate items to places in need in phases. The matching and distribution of supplies will continue.
Handling of reported missing persons
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The Police have completed searches inside all seven buildings. Today, around 300 officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit conducted searches around the buildings and near the collapsed scaffolding, which had been confirmed as safe. No human remains were found, and the number of the deceased remains at 159. The officers also handed over suspected human remains found earlier to forensic pathologists for further testing. The Police will continue to follow up on the reported missing persons, aiming to confirm their status and the number of casualties as soon as possible.
Investigations
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The Inter-departmental Fire Investigation Task Force, led by the Fire Services Department and joined by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, investigated the oil gas pipeline on the exterior wall at the initially confirmed fire location and found no damage to the pipeline.
Regulation and inspection work
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The Housing Bureau has arranged emergency maintenance contractors to help the Police start clearing away miscellaneous items at the surroundings of the buildings starting today. At the same time, further support works have commenced in the small number of units which may be subject to more damage.
The Independent Checking Unit of the Housing Bureau visited the four Home Ownership Scheme courts, namely Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin, Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po, Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, and On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, as well as Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan under the Tenants Purchase Scheme to oversee the work and progress on the removal of protective nets carried out by the registered contractors. The Housing Department has also completed the removal of the protective nets in 15 public housing estates today.
Following the Development Bureau’s announcement yesterday (December 3) that any scaffold nets installed on external walls of all public and private buildings, as well as government buildings undergoing major repair works, must be immediately removed, and the works at the external walls must cease, the Buildings Department (BD) and relevant government departments have issued orders to contractors today, requiring them to complete the removal on or before this Saturday (December 6). Before and after the removal of scaffold nets, the contractors must ensure that there are no materials or loose items on the scaffolding, and that the scaffolding is safely secured to ensure public safety. Some contractors have commenced the removal and for individual cases that require more handling time, the contractor should notify the relevant department in advance, which will assess whether there are reasonable grounds for discretionary arrangements.
The BD aims to issue a new code of practice next week, requiring all scaffold net materials to be sampled on-site. The scaffold nets can only be installed after being certified by designated laboratories as compliant with relevant requirements.
Moreover, relevant departments inspected existing buildings undergoing major external wall maintenance earlier and took samples for testing from buildings with scaffold nets installed. The BD has taken samples from 400 private buildings with scaffold nets installed and sent them for testing in batches. The Architectural Services Department has also inspected all 18 of its public works building projects and collected samples for testing.
The Labour Department (LD) continues to inspect fire protection facilities and the fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding to ensure the occupational safety of workers. As of 4pm today, the LD has inspected 239 construction sites, issued a total of 130 written warnings and 61 improvement notices, and taken out 17 prosecutions.
Source: AI-found images
