Source: Hong Kong Information Services
In response to an order from the Buildings Department, as of today, scaffold nets had been removed from the external walls of all 230 private buildings.
Meanwhile, the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) continued to extract concrete core samples from affected buildings. So far, the exercise has covered all seven buildings.
Under the ICU’s supervision, miscellaneous items earlier found on some scaffoldings at Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin, Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po and Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan, have essentially been removed by the contractor. The ICU will continue to inspect regularly and monitor the situation.
Financial support
As of noon today, donations received by the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po had reached about $3 billion. Combined with $300 million in startup capital from the Government, this takes the fund to a total of around $3.3 billion.
The fund will provide a living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 1,617 cases had been processed.
The fund will also provide the families of each deceased victim with a $200,000 token of solidarity, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 106 cases had been processed.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1,970 affected households, and more than 4,900 residents have been registered for the “one social worker per household” follow-up service.
SWD staff also visited affected residents staying in transitional housing units in Kai Tak today and gave them Octopus cards with a value of $2,000 to facilitate their daily travel.
Accommodation arrangements
As of this morning, a total of 1,431 residents had been accommodated under the co-ordination of the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 2,530 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or the Hong Kong Housing Society.
Relief supplies
On the Government’s online platform for donated supplies, about 1,700 registrations have been received, with approximately 30% submitted by organisations. Over 16,000 donated items, covering various categories, have been distributed.
Missing persons
Officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVIU) completed searching the area around the buildings and near the collapsed scaffolding, which had been confirmed as safe. Suspected bones were discovered and collected for further testing.
In the next phase, the DVIU will conduct a search after the scaffold nets and scaffolding are removed.
In addition, further testing has confirmed that a set of human remains found earlier belongs to two deceased individuals. This took the number of deceased in the fire to 160, with 120 human remains identified.
Police have contacted the families of the missing persons and those who have preliminarily identified the deceased through photographs, and continued to arrange DNA oral swab sampling for them in batches today for scientific identification of the deceased.
Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority said all 24 patients hospitalised from the Tai Po fire are in stable condition.
The Fire Services Department has set up a rope system on the podium at Wang Tai House to access the underground pump room, allowing the DVIU to conduct searches in hard-to-access areas at the fire scene. Additionally, the Inter-departmental Fire Investigation Task Force held another meeting today.
As of 4pm today, the Labour Department had inspected 371 construction sites, issued a total of 189 written warnings and 101 improvement notices, and taken out 25 prosecutions.