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 are about $3.1 billion as of noon today (December 10). In addition to the start-up capital of $300 million from the Government, the fund's total has now reached around $3.4 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 a living allowance from the Support Fund will be provided to each affected household and the amount has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000. As of today, 1 717 cases have been processed. In addition, the Government 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 109 cases have been processed. The allowance will be disbursed in phases.
Moreover, the Government announced today that a new special one-off grant of $100,000 under the fund will be provided to flat owners of all the eight blocks at Wang Fuk Court.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1 980 affected households, and more than 4 900 residents have been registered for the "one social worker per household" follow-up service. The SWD will maintain liaison with the affected households to provide all necessary assistance while fully supporting the relief work of the Government.
Accommodation support
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As of this morning, a total of 1 435 residents have been accommodated, through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps, or hotel rooms. Another 2 677 residents are currently living in transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society. Separately, the temporary shelter at Tai Po Community Centre has ceased operation as users in the shelter have all relocated to the emergency accommodations arranged by the Government for affected residents. The other temporary shelter at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall remains in operation until the existing users have relocated to arranged emergency accommodations.
Relief supplies and donations
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The supplies donation online platform, 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 1 700 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, bedding, 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 in phases to places in need. So far, over 16 300 pieces of donation items covering various categories have been distributed to different places. The matching and distribution of supplies will continue.
Regulation and inspection work
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Upon liaison with the Police, the Housing Department will start removing the burnt scaffolding on the external walls of Wang Cheong House, Wang Tai House and Wang Sun House this Friday (December 12). The Independent Checking Unit (ICU) of the Housing Bureau today continued to conduct further strengthening works in a small number of units that may be subject to more serious damage, including concrete grouting and erecting temporary props.
The ICU has inspected the scaffolding at the four Home Ownership Scheme courts, namely Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin and Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po, as well as Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan under the Tenants Purchase Scheme. The contractor concerned has completed removing all the miscellaneous items on the scaffolding.
The order to remove scaffold nets issued by the Buildings Department (BD) has all been complied with. The BD will announce a new set of arrangements within this week that will require scaffold nets used at construction sites to be sampled on-site and certified as compliant with the relevant standards prior to installation, so that the relevant external wall work can resume as soon as possible.
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 404 construction sites, issued a total of 210 written warnings and 104 improvement notices, and taken out 25 prosecutions.
Source: AI-found images
