For Paul Chow, the images are almost too much to bear. The Hong Kong apartment complex he called home for more than 30 years has been reduced to ashes in a catastrophic fire that has claimed 150 lives and counting.
“I still cannot believe it happened in Hong Kong,” Chow said. “When I see videos and photos of the fire, I thought maybe it was from a movie.”
Chow grew up in the sprawling eight-block complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district before immigrating to Toronto three years ago. Watching the disaster unfold from afar, he says, has felt like living through a nightmare.
“I feel very depressed and very sad about the fire and the seven buildings,” he said. “I also feel anger because I don’t feel like the government is going to be transparent.”
The blaze began last Wednesday at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex and raged for two days before crews fully extinguished it on Friday. Fuelled by foam panels and bamboo scaffolding used for renovations, the fire tore through seven towers in the complex.
As of Monday, officials have confirmed more than 150 deaths, with at least 30 people still missing. Authorities say it is the worst fire to hit the region in more than 100 years.
More than a dozen people arrested
Police and the city’s anti-corruption body have arrested 14 people so far in a wide-ranging probe into a multi-million dollar renovation project. Those detained include scaffolding subcontractors, directors of a construction company and a consultancy, many of them on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence.
Andy Wong, president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, says the tragedy demands answers.
“We’re demanding that there be an independent inquiry into what happened, what went wrong, what system safeguards failed,” said Wong. “That independent inquiry must have powers to raise a criminal investigation and really look into whether there are any criminal acts involved, including whether the officials were actually doing their jobs.”
For Chow, the devastation is tempered by relief that his parents and younger sister, who still live in one of the towers, were not home at the time of the fire and are safe.
A local show of support is planned for Saturday at North York Memorial Community Hall, where Toronto’s Hong Kong community will gather to grieve, unite, and push for an independent investigation into the disaster.
