Hong Kong, November 27: A devastating fire has torn through several high-rise apartment blocks in a Hong Kong housing complex, killing at least 44 people and leaving hundreds of people missing, CNN reported, citing an official statement.<\/p>\n
Firefighters have been struggling to reach residents stranded on upper floors as the blaze continues to rage.<\/p>\n
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Authorities revealed early Thursday that three men have been arrested in connection with the incident \u2014 two directors and a consultant from a construction company.<\/p>\n
Police accused them of \u201cgross negligence\u201d after investigators discovered the company\u2019s name on highly flammable polystyrene boards found blocking windows in some apartments, according to CNN.<\/p>\n
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Officials also suspect that other construction materials at the site \u2014 such as protective nets, canvas sheets, and plastic coverings \u2014 did not meet required safety standards.<\/p>\n
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Seven of the eight towers in the complex, which houses many elderly residents, were still burning hours after the fire first broke out. The fire is now believed to be Hong Kong\u2019s deadliest in nearly 30 years, surpassing even the infamous 1996 Garley Building blaze that killed 41 people.<\/p>\n
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The inferno, centred in the Tai Po district, has been burning for roughly 16 hours, with firefighters focusing their efforts on three of the worst-affected towers. They say the flames in four other buildings have been brought \u201cunder control,\u201d though not fully extinguished.<\/p>\n
Questions are mounting about how the fire spread so quickly. Andy Yeung, Director of Fire Services, said crews noticed polystyrene boards blocking windows in multiple units, a detail he called highly unusual, as per CNN.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThese polystyrene boards are extremely inflammable, and the fire spread very rapidly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTheir presence was unusual, so we have referred the incident to the police for further enquiries,\u201d Yeung added.<\/p>\n
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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the city\u2019s housing authorities will also examine whether the protective layers coating the buildings during refurbishment were sufficiently fire-resistant. \u201cWe will hold those accountable in accordance with the laws and regulations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Officials are also looking at the role of bamboo scaffolding, commonly used to wrap Hong Kong buildings during construction or repair work, which has previously been cited as a factor in the spread of fires.\u2013(ANI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hong Kong, November 27: A devastating fire has torn through several high-rise apartment blocks in a Hong Kong housing complex, killing at least 44 people and leaving hundreds of people missing, CNN reported, citing an official statement. Firefighters have been struggling to reach residents stranded on upper floors as the blaze continues to rage. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92538,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92536\/revisions\/92538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.khushalekashmir.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}