Hong Kong Temporarily Provides Residential Housing For Death Fire Victims Of Apartments

An apartment fire in Hong Kong/PHOTO badminton via Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - Hong Kong authorities will provide temporary shelter and financial assistance for those affected by the intense fire in a densely populated apartment complex.

A fire in Wang Fuk Court's apartment complex broke out on Tuesday and then spread to seven building towers.

Recent data, 65 people died as a result of the Hong Kong apartment fire. Meanwhile, hundreds of others have not been found. Extinguishing and rescue efforts are still ongoing.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said authorities would make every effort to extinguish the fire, rescue trapped residents, and help the families of the dead and injured, and would provide temporary shelter and financial assistance "as soon as possible."

"To prevent similar incidents from happening again, inspections have been carried out in all apartment complexes which are in great repair to verify the role and security of building materials," he said.

The Chinese Red Cross said it had allocated 2 million yuan (approximately IDR 4.7 billion) for emergency humanitarian aid for the victims.

The local newspaper, Soph China Morning Post (SCMP), reported that Jack Ma's foundation, the founder of China's Alibaba Group, promised assistance worth 60 million Hong Kong dollars (around Rp128.4 billion).

Reported by ANTARA from Sputnik, Thursday, November 27, Hong Kong authorities said the rapid spread of fire had never happened before. Criminal investigations to find the cause have begun and three suspects have been charged with murder.

The SCMP report said the fire started with a bamboo device installed for renovation at a Wang FukCourt building, but then spread to three other buildings.

The incident escalated to Hong Kong's highest fire hazard level: level five.