HONG KONG, December 13. . China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has established an independent committee to investigate the cause and circumstances of a fire in a residential area that killed at least 160 people. Once the SAR (government) administration reports on the official website, the results of the investigation will be announced to the public after nine months.
The independent commission, chaired by Justice David Locke, “will formally begin its work at the end of December with the goal of completing its work within nine months,” the statement said.
“If the independent committee considers it appropriate, it may publish interim report(s) at various stages and make recommendations to the Executive Director. All reports and recommendations made by the independent committee will be made public (except for information that may be relevant to the proceedings),” the document notes.
Previously, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (Li Jiachao) said the main task of this committee is to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth investigation, as well as review the urban construction system to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The fire started on November 26 at a complex of eight high-rise buildings, Wang Fuk Court, in the Tai Po area, known as Hong Kong's New Territories. One building was practically undamaged, while seven were engulfed in flames. The fire spread through construction mesh and bamboo scaffolding installed on these buildings for cosmetic repairs. The complex has nearly 2 thousand apartments, more than 4 thousand people live there. There are currently no reports of Russian citizens injured in the fire in Hong Kong. As Consul Ekaterina Bogucharskaya, press secretary of the Russian Consulate General in Hong Kong, previously told , Russian diplomats are closely monitoring the developments of the situation.
The fire was the deadliest residential building fire in the city's history. Previously, the largest number of deaths in a residential building fire in an urban area was the Garley Building fire in 1996, which killed 41 people and injured 81 people. The deadliest fire in urban history started on February 27, 1918, occurring at the Happy Valley Hippodrome. More than 600 people died after a temporary stand collapsed and a fire broke out. Another fire occurred on Des Voeux Road West in 1948, when a block of celluloid film caught fire in a warehouse and spread to living quarters, killing 176 people and injuring 69.
