Hong Kong’s grassroots group teams have sprung into motion to assist coordinate and ship support to the survivors of the Wang Fuk Courtroom hearth, a catastrophic blaze that’s confirmed to have killed no less than 128 folks, with a whole bunch nonetheless lacking.
Eating places, church buildings and gymnasiums within the Tai Po space, the place the Wang Fuk Courtroom housing property is situated, have been changed into short-term shelters for folks in want of garments, meals and knowledge because of the tragedy.
Some have in contrast the sudden and well-organised mobilisation of volunteers to the help networks that emerged through the 2014 and 2019 pro-democracy protests, when hundreds of Hongkongers helped to ship provides to the frontlines of the demonstrations.
“Because the two actions in 2014 and 2019, citizen-led provides mobilisation have change into a part of our muscle reminiscence,” mentioned Michael Mo, a former district councillor who now lives within the UK.
A crowd-sourced internet app has collated reviews from folks about every constructing, figuring out particular person flats in every tower, with accessible particulars of the residents. Residents can mark themselves as protected, or submit details about who remains to be lacking from sure flats.
One other web site has an interactive map which reveals the place provide stations can be found within the Tai Po space. There’s additionally a platform for coordinating volunteer shifts.
There are additionally quite a few fundraising platforms which might be gathering donations, together with the federal government’s “Help Fund for Wang Fuk Courtroom in Tai Po”, which has a startup donation of HKD$300m (£29,172,600) from the federal government.
The Wang Fuk Courtroom buildings in Tai Po, Hong Kong, after the fireplace. {Photograph}: Xinhua/Shutterstock
Messages flooded social media platforms and messaging apps with call-outs for assist. On Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that was extensively used through the pro-democracy protests, channels appeared for various duties corresponding to Tai Po drivers, Tai Po helpers and Tai Po hearth help. Customers submit lists of provides which might be wanted at varied places, corresponding to folding tables, mattresses and cleansing provides. Lots of the teams have already got hundreds of members.
The Hong Kong Crimson Cross mentioned that its blood banks have eight to 10 days’ price of provides whereas it appealed to residents to e book an appointment for future donations.
Elsewhere, a bunch of Hong Kong legal professionals posted a call-out on social media for volunteers to help victims with tenancy and land legislation questions, employment points and different authorized issues that will come up from the lethal blaze. The group mentioned it was aiming to organize a listing of regularly requested inquiries to distribute to frontline NGOs and affected people to “assist them perceive their authorized rights, choices and doable subsequent steps in a transparent and accessible method”. The supplies can be accessible in Chinese language, English, and presumably different languages utilized by ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, the group mentioned.
At the very least two Indonesian home staff are confirmed to have died within the hearth.
Questions are already swirling about how the fireplace might have unfold so rapidly throughout the seven tower blocks in Wang Fuk Courtroom that had been affected. Residents had complained for greater than a yr about doable hearth hazards within the constructing referring to the development work that noticed the blocks sheathed in bamboo scaffolding and inexperienced netting. Authorities have additionally pointed to the extremely flammable styrofoam that was utilized in elevator window coverings on each ground.
On Friday, the pinnacle of the fireplace providers, Andy Yeung, confirmed what many residents had been claiming for days: that no hearth alarms went off in any of the eight towers.
Three folks related to the contractor, Status, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. The South China Morning Put up reported that Status had been convicted of two security offences in 2023, earlier than it gained the contract to do the renovation works at Wang Fuk Courtroom. Status has not commented on the catastrophe.
One other crowd-sourced internet challenge is an initiative to protect the minutes of conferences of the Wang Fuk Courtroom owners affiliation, the place considerations had been raised in regards to the bidding course of for the renovation works.
The Labour Division instructed residents final yr that there was a comparatively low danger of fireside on the website. However, it mentioned that the contractor had been repeatedly warned in writing about different unsafe working practices at Wang Fuk Courtroom.
