As engineers started drilling concrete cores from three of the seven fire-ravaged blocks at Wang Fuk Court on Friday, the government reported that emergency scaffolding nets have now been stripped from more than 130 buildings across Hong Kong and donations to the official relief fund have surged past the $3 billion mark.
The Housing Department’s Independent Checking Unit began extracting core samples this morning to evaluate how much structural strength the buildings lost in the intense blaze. Work will continue on the remaining four blocks in the coming days.
In a sweeping safety measure ordered after the tragedy, all public and private buildings undergoing major renovation with external scaffolding nets were told to remove the netting immediately and halt façade work.
By 3pm yesterday afternoon, the nets had been taken down from 115 private residential blocks and 18 government projects.
Two Home Ownership Scheme estates in Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong have also finished the process, while crews are still working on the remaining ones in Sha Tin Sui Wo Court, Sham Shui Po Ching Lai Court, and Chai Wan Fung Wah Estate.
The Labour Department maintained its blitz on construction-site fire safety, visiting 300 sites by late afternoon yesterday and issuing 148 written warnings and 79 improvement notices and initiating 25 prosecutions.
On the relief front, public generosity has pushed external donations to the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po to HK$2.7 billion, which, together with the government’s HK$300 million start-up capital, brings the total fund to around HK$3 billion.
Condolence payments of HK$200,000 and funeral grants of HK$50,000 have already been processed for the families of 73 deceased victims, while living allowances for affected households have been approved in 923 cases so far.
In addition, one-off emergency cash grants of HK$10,000 have reached 1,930 families, with disbursements continuing rapidly.
