The video is horrifying. When I first saw I hoped like hell it was AI. But no, just heartbreaking.
Coating your buildings with bamboo and plastic has drawbacks.
Ah. That explains a lot. I saw a picture and figured it had to have been arson on a grand scale. But I guess I can see how they would all go up if they are sheathed in firewood.
Unfortunately vastly more dead than the OP initial reports.
I saw on another site that the fire started around 3:30PM, when most residents were at work or school, or were awake and could get themselves out. However, that it spread so readily from one building to the next is just bizarre, even if the scaffolding was made of bamboo.
If it was just bamboo I suspect it woud be hard for the fire to spread far, but that bamboo was covered in sheets of plastic, which would have been profoundly flammable.
Probably a good bet that nearly all of the 279 missing are actually dead, and we’ll be looking at a death toll in total of >300.
No, Velocity, remember all the major disasters we have been discussing the last few years–from Maui to the Texas floods to the various California wildfires. They all had huge number of missing and the overwhelming majority of the missing turned up because they were being double or triple counted or they hadn’t bothered to contact authorities or whatever. For example Maui peaked at 3200 missing–and final death toll 102. Campfire fire had over 1200 missing with final death toll 85, Katrina had 13,000 missing with final death toll of 1800.
Serious building codes taken seriously can make a big difference in situations like this.
Latest reporting I heard/saw had at least 10 people from the construction company arrested so it sounds like there could have been violations and the authorities are certainly taking this seriously now… The arrested include project managers so not entirely the peon-level fall guys but maybe some folks higher up in the company(s) involved.
Other reporting, with the caveat information may change rapidly over the next few days.
The fire alarm systems for the buildings may not have been functional.
In addition to the already mentioned bamboo scaffolding and the plastic safety netting, apparently polystyrene boards were being used to block windows in the work areas (I’m guessing to protect the glass). When it comes to fire polystyrene is basically fuel in solid form. It burns hot, which resulted in windows shattering from heat which then allowed the fire into the interior of the buildings.
Some residents also reported workers leaving their cigarette butts on window sills. Make of that what you will.
I don’t know if the buildings has sprinklers, but from the videos I saw, I don’t think that would have made much difference. What a horrific tragedy!
Does this remind anyone else of the Grenfell Tower fire in London back in 2017?
Certainly there are some differences, but in both cases what was on the outside of the building(s) made the situation so much worse than it might have been otherwise.
Remembering that Hong Kong is now ruled by the Chinese Communists, they’re going to make quite a show of arresting somebody.
Good bet nothing about building industry compliance or politically well-connected tycoons is going to change.
As opposed to what (did not) happen in London?
And now:
So far the team has examined four of the seven blocks, Cheng said.
So maybe another 20-30 dead to be found?
It’s not true that nothing’s happening in the UK following Grenfell!
Lots of people suddenly recieved massive charges to remove the dangerous cladding on their buildings that they can’t afford to pay, and huge insurance increases! That’s something, isn’t it?
Yes, but probably not in the direction any of the residents wanted.
30 others remain missing.