By Joyce Zhou and Farah Master
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Relatives and friends trying to identify loved ones who died in Hong Kong's worst fire in nearly 80 years queued outside a community centre on Friday as emergency workers searched for any survivors and more victims.
At least 94 people died in the blaze that engulfed the Wang Fuk Court complex, with eight 32-storey towers in the northern district of Tai Po. Scores are still missing.
The estate housing more than 4,600 people had been wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh for renovation work when the fire started and quickly spread on Wednesday.
Police said they had arrested three construction company officials on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows.
GRIM TASK OF IDENTIFYING LOVED ONES
While firefighters contained the blaze on Friday and doused the still-smouldering complex, families had the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.
Mirra Wong, whose parents were living in Wang Fuk Court, was looking for any news of her father.
"Just recognise some picture is maybe (the) body of my dad. It's my dad’s body is still missing here,” said Wong, 48.
Another resident, who did not want to be identified, said a friend's wife was among those unaccounted for.
"Rationally speaking, it means there’s no hope," she said. "But the bodies still have to be found, right? Let me see if they’ve found them... It’s just too sorrowful. When it involves people you know, it’s even more painful."
As many as 279 people were listed as missing in the early hours of Thursday, but that figure has not been updated for more than 24 hours.
"We'll endeavour to effect forcible entry to all the units of the seven buildings, so as to ensure there are no other possible casualties," Deputy Fire Services Director Derek Chan told reporters on Friday.
He said 25 calls for help to the Fire Department remain unresolved, including three in recent hours, which would be prioritised.
THE FIRE IS HONG KONG'S DEADLIEST SINCE 1948
Dozens of domestic workers from the Philippines had been caught up in the disaster and 19 were still missing, said Edwina Antonio, executive director at migrant women refuge association Bethune House.
Indonesia's consulate said two of the dead were nationals also working as domestic helpers. Hong Kong has around 368,000 domestic workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers.
The fire is Hong Kong's deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London's Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
That fire was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
Police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for more than a year.
"We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties," Police Superintendent Eileen Chung said on Thursday.
Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment.
Police seized bidding documents, a list of employees, 14 computers and three mobile phones in a raid of the company's office, the government added.
The city's development bureau has discussed gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.
Hong Kong's leader, John Lee, said the government would set up a HK$300 million ($39 million) fund to help residents while some of China's biggest listed companies announced donations.
On the second night after the blaze, dozens of evacuees set up mattresses in a nearby mall, many saying official evacuation centres should be saved for those in greater need.
People - from elderly residents to schoolchildren - wrapped themselves in duvets and huddled in tents outside a McDonald's restaurant and convenience shops as volunteers handed out snacks and toiletries.
Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated cities, is scattered with high-rise housing complexes. Its sky-high property prices have long been a trigger for discontent and analysts say the tragedy could stoke resentment towards authorities despite efforts to tighten political and national security control.
The leadership of both the Hong Kong government and China's Communist Party moved quickly to show they attached utmost importance to a tragedy seen as a potential test of Beijing's grip on the semi-autonomous region.
($1=HK$7.7779)
(Reporting by Joyce Zhou, Tyrone Siu, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, Clare Jim, David Kirton, Greg Torode, Farah Master, James Pomfret, Artorn Pookasok, Yuddy Cahya Budiman in Hong Kong; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Stephen Coates and Kate Mayberry)
