Hong Kong mourns Tai Po fire victims as government support efforts continue
The Government mourned the victims of the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po and expressed profound condolences at the Central Government Offices yesterday morning (November 29), with national and regional flags at all government buildings flying at half-mast. Members of the public also visited condolence points in various districts to sign condolence books and mourn the victims.
Meanwhile, multiple government departments under the Task Force on Investigation and Regulation, the Task Force on Emergency Support and Fund-Raising, and the Task Force on Emergency Accommodation Arrangements, led respectively by the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, and the Deputy Financial Secretary; continue to work tirelessly, pushing forward follow-up support and relief efforts on all fronts. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and all relevant departments of Guangdong Province for their staunch support and prompt assistance, including the provision of numerous pieces of necessary equipment to the HKSAR, such as drones, exoskeleton devices, protective gear, and medical supplies. This significantly assisted the relevant departments in their emergency response and the follow-up efforts.
The Government has been offering an emergency cash subsidy of $10,000 per affected household to provide immediate relief for affected residents. As at 3.30pm yesterday, the Government has registered more than 1 800 households for the subsidy and disbursed the emergency cash subsidies to 929 households. In addition, the Government will provide a token of solidarity of $200,000 to the family members of each deceased victim, and a living allowance of $50,000 will be provided to each affected household starting next week.
As of yesterday morning, social workers of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in touch with about 1 300 households, and 3 200 affected residents have been registered for support services under the "one social worker per household" arrangement. The SWD will continue to engage other affected households. Residents not yet in touch with the SWD are advised to leave their contact information by calling 182 183.
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In addition, the Government will further strengthen the "one social worker per household" service by mobilising civil servants. For each household, in addition to one social worker, two to three civil servants will be assigned to provide voluntary support, such as running errands or collecting supplies, with the aim of delivering more comprehensive assistance.
Regarding fundraising and relief supplies, the Government has established a Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Apart from the $300 million injection from the Government, as at 3pm yesterday, the support fund has raised around $800 million, bringing the fund’s total to around $1.1 billion. The Government will also set up a central supplies station at the Tai Po Community Centre to co-ordinate and properly manage the donated materials received. Members of the public may also provide their contact information and details of the items they wish to donate via WhatsApp at 9213 2388 for timely follow-up by the Government. In addition, the Government is working with the information technology sector to expedite the development of an online platform to facilitate registration of supplies donations from organisations and members of the public.
In order to alleviate the financial pressure of affected owners at Wang Fuk Court, the Hong Kong Housing Authority has immediately relaxed the provisions regarding mortgage repayment periods and repayment amounts under the Deed of Guarantee. Such relaxation allows banks and financial institutions concerned to offer special mortgage arrangements to the mortgagors of subsidised sale flats with premium unpaid, including deferred repayment of mortgage instalments or principal.
On emergency accommodation support for residents affected by the fire, as of this afternoon, around 517 residents have been accommodated, through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels/camps or hotel rooms. Another 1 038 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or the Housing Society. Furthermore, two shelters remain open for residents in need.
To facilitate the victims staying at transitional housing units, the residents' service connecting Good House (transitional housing project in Tai Po) and MTR Tai Po Market Station commenced operation yesterday morning, while the frequency of the residents' service plying between Trackside Villas (another transitional housing project in Tai Po) and MTR Tai Po Market Station has been strengthened since yesterday. The Transport Department has also steered public transport operators to enhance the service of franchised bus and green minibus routes travelling Ting Kok Road to accommodate the needs of affected residents admitted into Good House and Lok Sin Village (another project).
As for the funeral-related matters, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will arrange dedicated staff to assist each family of the deceased, enabling them to make arrangements at their preferred time and location. The FEHD has set up a service counter at the Fu Shan Public Mortuary to offer assistance to families.
Regarding mental health support, the Fire Services Department's (FSD) Psychological Services Unit is also providing emotional support and psychological counselling to the family members of the deceased fireman, as well as to other FSD members engaged in frontline firefighting and rescue, and supporting personnel. The Unit will also conduct post-operational psychological debriefings to help them process their emotions. The FSD also expresses its gratitude to the Police and the Correctional Services Department for promptly deploying their teams of clinical psychologists to assist in providing professional psychological services to FSD personnel.
To pool strengths from the education sector in a more focused manner, the Education Bureau has initiated the establishment of a territory-wide education sector support group for special incidents, comprising education bodies of primary and secondary schools, kindergartens and special schools; school councils; and various school heads' associations. It serves as an exchange platform for keeping abreast of the situation of all schools in Hong Kong, providing affected students with more tailored assistance, and garnering and unifying support to help students and teachers overcome trauma with a view to facilitating a speedy recovery of the community.
For the latest updates and information about the support services, please visit the Government's one-stop dedicated website: www.taipofire.gov.hk.
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Regarding the handling of alleged missing persons, the Police deployed over 600 officers of the Disaster Victim Identification Unit to conduct searches at two of the buildings yesterday. The search operation was completed at about 2.30pm yesterday, during which no human remains were found. The Police have arranged sufficient manpower to remain on standby. Once the relevant departments confirm the safety of each building, the Police will immediately deploy officers there to conduct searches. The Police will continue to follow up on the alleged missing persons, aiming to confirm their status and the number of casualties as soon as possible.
On the investigations and monitoring fronts, the FSD conducted functional tests on the fire alarm systems (including fire alarm bells) at all eight domestic blocks of Wang Fuk Court after the fire. The department found that the fire alarm systems were not in effective working order. The FSD will continue to carry out inspections on other fire service installations and equipment in all domestic blocks of Wang Fuk Court and will collect relevant evidence. Should any person be found to have contravened the provisions of the Fire Services Ordinance, appropriate enforcement action will be taken. If any matters beyond the scope of the Fire Services Ordinance are identified, the case will be referred to the relevant law enforcement authorities for follow-up action.
The interdepartmental Fire Investigation Task Force, led by the Fire Services Department, held its first meeting on November 28 to investigate the cause of the fire, how it spread, and to determine the factors that led to heavy casualties.
The three personnel of the construction company who were arrested on November 27 have been released on bail. The Police have accorded top priority to the case and are conducting a thorough and in-depth investigation, gathering evidence through various channels.
The Independent Checking Unit of the Housing Bureau (ICU), together with professionals from the Housing Department led by two Deputy Directors and five Chief Structural Engineers at directorate level, visited Wang Fuk Court yesterday to inspect the overall structural safety of the damaged buildings. As at 1pm yesterday, the ICU has completed the inspections on the structural safety of the whole blocks of Wang Yan House and Wang Tao House as well as the first two floors of Wang Cheong House. Based on the visual inspections of the situations on site, the ICU assessed that Wang Yan House and Wang Tao House should have no imminent danger in terms of structural safety. Preliminary observations suggested that the structure of some units may have shown more serious damages, and temporary support may be necessary. Contractors for emergency maintenance have already been mobilised to conduct relevant works.
The ICU has continued to deploy manpower to conduct on-site sampling at Wang Fuk Court and four other Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) courts that have been issued notices under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme, including 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. Samples collected from different positions of the protective nets have been sent to the Government Laboratory for testing yesterday. In the four HOS courts other than Wang Fuk Court, in case any flammable material is identified on the external walls, the ICU would instruct the contractors to remove it immediately.
The Buildings Department (BD) announced yesterday that the BD has issued orders under the Buildings Ordinance (BO) requiring the immediate temporary suspension of works on 28 private building projects with Prestige Construction & Engineering Company, Limited (PC&E) as the registered contractor, as well as two other private building maintenance projects in which plastic sheetings were found to be used. The BD has also ordered at once the two registered contractors concerned (Fulam Construction Engineering Company Limited and Yuen Fat Construction Engineering Limited) to remove the plastic sheetings, and will seek legal advice for considering legal penalties. Contractors responsible for the above-mentioned 30 projects are required to conduct independent safety audits for the projects and submit to the BD improvement plans and implement improvement measures before the department considers if and when the works can be resumed.
Furthermore, the BD will continue its special inspection operation. As of November 29, 250 buildings undergoing external wall maintenance have been inspected and samples have been taken for testing from buildings installed with scaffold nets. If further buildings are found to be using foam or plastic sheeting to block up windows, or if sampling results indicate that the scaffold nets fail to meet fire-retardant standards, follow-up actions will be promptly announced.
The Labour Department (LD) launched a territory-wide special enforcement operation since November 28, targeting the fire protection facilities and fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding erected. This includes checking if protective screens (also known as scaffold nets) on scaffolds are in compliance with recognised standards for fire-retardant materials to ensure occupational safety of workers. As of November 29, the LD inspected 46 work sites, with a total of 39 written warnings and two improvement notices issued.
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