Death toll in Hong Kong apartment complex fire It rose to 159 on Wednesday after six people were arrested on suspicion of setting off some fire alarms during maintenance work at the apartment complex, authorities said.
According to the police, the youngest person who died in the fire was a one-year-old child. The oldest was 97 years old. At least 91 women and 41 men were among the dead, according to Police Commissioner Joe Chow.
The police said that they have completed the search for bodies in seven of the eight residential towers damaged by the fire that broke out last Wednesday and it will take until Friday to put it out. About 30 people were still missing.
“We found 159 bodies, of which 140 were identified in advance,” Chow told reporters at a news conference, describing the information as a “provisional summary” after the building searches were completed.
Chow said officials will continue to search the piles of fallen bamboo scaffolding to check if remains or bodies were buried there, adding: “We have not finished our work yet.”
He also said officers had found “suspected human bones” in the debris, which were subject to forensic tests, suggesting the death toll could still rise.
Chan Long Hei/AP 
The a deadly fire broke out Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, was undergoing a months-long renovation project, with buildings covered in bamboo scaffolding and green netting.
Police and the city’s anti-corruption agency said on Tuesday that 15 people had been arrested as authorities investigated corruption and negligence surrounding renovation work. Standard plastic nylon netting covering the scaffolding erected outside the towers and foam boards installed in the windows helped the fire spread quickly, authorities found earlier this week.
Chris Tang, Hong Kong’s security secretary, said police are investigating China’s Binzhou Inspection and Testing Center, which issued the construction network’s security inspection certificate.
In the meantime, the city will remove all outdoor scaffolding netting from ongoing renovations, Tang said. Materials should be tested before re-installation.
In addition to the scaffolding problem, residents and officials said some fire alarms in the buildings did not go off when the fire broke out, though it was unclear how widespread the problem was within the complex.
Six people were arrested on suspicion of making false statements to fire services after they allegedly set off some fire alarms in the apartment complex during renovations, police said on Wednesday.
The initial cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Nineteen of the 159 bodies were still unidentified, police said. Ten migrants working as domestic helpers in the housing complex, including nine Indonesians and one Filipino, as well as a firefighter, were among those killed in the fire.