Source: Hong Kong Information Services
As of noon today, donations received for the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po reached $2 billion, on top of the $300 million start-up capital from the Government, taking the fund’s total to around $2.3 billion.
The Government said the fund will be used to provide long-term and sustained support to assist the residents in rebuilding their homes.
It earlier announced that the Support Fund will provide the families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 21 cases have been processed.
In addition, the Support Fund will also provide a $50,000 living allowance to each affected household. As of today, 104 cases have been processed. Disbursement of the above-mentioned relief is underway.
The Government has been offering an emergency subsidy of $10,000 per affected household since November 27. As of 4pm today, it had registered more than 1,930 households for the subsidy, with disbursements made to 1,916 households.
Social workers from the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1,500 affected households so far for registration of the “one social worker per household” follow-up service.
The SWD also deployed social workers and clinical psychologists to accompany families in attending vigils at the scene today and provided them with emotional support.
As of the morning of December 2, 1,013 residents have been accommodated, through the Home & Youth Affairs Bureau’s co-ordination, in youth hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 1,607 residents have moved into the Housing Bureau’s transitional housing units or Housing Society units.
As for the supplies donation online platform established by the Government and the information technology sector, since it began operation on November 30, the Government has so far received over 860 registrations. The donation items included food and beverages, clothing, daily necessities, bedding and electrical appliances.
Police today deployed 330 officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVIU) to continue a search of the remaining two buildings most affected by the fire. As of 4pm today, Police handled 13 sets of human remains in the buildings – five newly found and eight found by firefighters but yet to be removed. The number of deceased has been updated to 156.
Forensic pathologists from the Department of Health continued to assist DVIU personnel on-site in collecting evidence. As of 4pm today, the next-of-kin of 116 victims have completed the necessary procedures at the Fu Shan Public Mortuary.
The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department has arranged dedicated staff for each family of the deceased to assist them in making funeral arrangements at their preferred time and location.
Furthermore, the Government will waive the fees for columbarium and related services, and provide $50,000 to the families of each deceased person through the “one social worker per household” service to cover funeral and related expenses.
On investigation work, the Fire Services Department (FSD) continues to take photos and gather evidence at the fire scene, and is discussing with the Lands Department to create a 3D model to assist in the investigation.
Police have so far arrested a total of 15 people on suspicion of manslaughter, including two individuals from a construction company arrested last night and 13 people arrested earlier.
Additionally, the Housing Department’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) conducted a meeting with structural engineering experts and professionals from the Housing Department (HD) today, to study the structure of the Wang Fuk Court buildings in detail, and formulate an action plan for extracting concrete cores samples for detailed analysis.
Additionally, firefighters are assisting the HD with temporary reinforcement work for 13 units in Wang Cheong Court.
The ICU today contacted representatives of Sui Wo Court, Ching Lai Court, Yee Kok Court and On Kay Court once again, and noted that the registered contractors have proactively started dismantling the protective nets in the respective housing courts.
For Wang Chi House, the HD’s contractor will remove the plastic sheeting on the external walls as well as the protective nets, after departments, including the FSD and the Labour Department (LD) have completed evidence collection on-site.
Government departments continued their special inspections. As of today, the Buildings Department has taken samples from 352 private buildings and sent them for testing in batches. The Architectural Services Department has also inspected all of its 18 public works building projects and collected samples for testing.
The LD launched a citywide special enforcement operation on November 28, targeting the fire protection facilities and fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding. As of 4pm, the LD had inspected 110 construction sites, issued a total of 70 written warnings and 46 improvement notices, and taken out 11 prosecutions.