00:00Over a hundred people were killed when Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades engulfed seven
00:06high-rise apartment buildings, leaving many others injured or missing. Authorities have
00:12arrested at least eight people in connection with the blaze. They're suspected of manslaughter for
00:17unsafe construction practices, which ultimately led to the fire. The building complex is Wong
00:23Fook Court, an affordable public housing project. It was undergoing massive renovations at the time
00:29of the fire, with each building covered in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh,
00:34materials that may have contributed to the fire's rapid spread.
00:38This one is largely due to the bamboo scaffold folding and other combustion materials during
00:46innovation. So it's kind of from initial fire to facade widespread fire and to multiple
00:53spots of the residential unit fire. So that is how the fire become so devastating.
01:02There might have been warning signs that this disaster was coming, signs that were ignored.
01:08According to Hong Kong's Labor Department, residents complained about fire hazards last September,
01:15over a year before the fire. Authorities responded saying that they faced, quote,
01:19relatively low fire risks. Following the complaints, the Labor Department reviewed the
01:25certification for the construction mesh and told residents that it met standards. While the mesh could
01:31have contributed to the fire's spread, poor construction practices may have been what started the inferno.
01:38One video shows a construction worker smoking within the green mesh. Other oversights likely added to the risk.
01:44Fires on scaffolding at construction sites are usually due to the accumulation of construction debris,
01:52like paper. In light of the Wong Fook Court fire, Hong Kong is reviewing its policies on bamboo
01:59scaffolding. Workers have been spotted taking down construction mesh around the city, a sign that Hong Kong
02:05is looking to revamp and reform in order to recover. John Su and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.
02:14have been established in a project.
02:15We are not forwarding the testifying system of the
02:20alcohol storage systems into the area, which is currently un-affected and wasteful area.
02:25We're not going to launch the sites, but the site would be ě ěŠ-like.
02:27In the list of all sites, we are not to work through the city.
02:30We are not to be able to do this in the list of this list of sites of the storage systems that we racked up.
02:33We are a lot of the sites around the time. We are allowed to get tested,
02:36and we are available to the site for the site, and we are available to the site.
02:37We are now available to the site for this site, and we are available to post-S.
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