April 12, 2024
HONG KONG – The owners of Yau Mai Tei’s New Lucky House — where a fire claimed five lives and injured 40, including a one-year-old baby — have ignored an official fire safety order for 16 years, government sources said.
Firefighters found unapproved alterations and inoperable fire doors at the scene, which may have contributed to the large number of casualties.
The fire broke out in the 60-year-old building at 7:53 am on Wednesday and was contained about two hours later. Investigators are still trying to ascertain the cause. As of Thursday afternoon, seven of the injured were in critical condition.
Lam Kin-kwan, Kowloon South division commander of the Fire Services Department, told a radio program on Thursday that some alterations were found in the building, making the rescue more difficult
The fire-ravaged building – which contains a number of commercial and residential premises – was still sealed on Thursday morning, with some residents waiting outside hoping to return to their home or hotel rooms, or to retrieve belongings.
Lam Kin-kwan, Kowloon South division commander of the Fire Services Department, told a radio program on Thursday that some alterations were found in the building, making the rescue more difficult.
Lam noted that one of the building’s three staircases allowed over 100 people to escape the fire because smoke barely got inside. However, a large amount of smoke entered the staircase near the main entrance, and firefighters later found that several fire doors on the staircase were damaged.
The Buildings Department said on Wednesday night that the building’s owners had failed to respond to a fire safety direction issued by the department in 2008, in which the government instructed the owners’ corporation to replace the fire doors inside the building, cover non-emergency equipment with fire-resistant materials, install windows with fire resistant features, and carry out other fire prevention measures.
The building’s owners appointed a consultant to follow up on the fire safety direction in 2015 – about seven years after the issuance of the Buildings Department’s direction, and the same task was again given to the consultant in 2020. The department said it contacted the owners to learn about the upgrading process, but the building had still not complied with the original instructions.
In 2018, the department announced that the building’s common areas needed to undergo a mandatory building inspection — a requirement for all Hong Kong buildings aged 30 years or above.
Under normal circumstances, for buildings with an owners’ corporation, the inspection should be completed within six months.
A registered inspector, appointed by New Lucky House’s owners’ corporation, submitted a report in May 2023 and recommended repair works including the replacement of fire doors, providing protected lobbies for an escape staircase and improvement works required under the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance. However the repair work is still at the tendering stage.
The department added that parts of the building were damaged by the fire, but there was no obvious danger to its overall structure following an inspection on Wednesday afternoon.
Yau Tsim Mong district councilor Chan Siu-tong said he learned that there is a dispute between the former and current chairpersons of the owners’ corporation, which may have hindered the building’s repair work. He mentioned that the diverse ownership of many old-style buildings in the district has led to a lack of management.
He added that maintaining old buildings involves a huge amount of money, so owners often choose to procrastinate.
Chan said he believes that the sundries piled up in the building’s corridors partly led to the high number of casualties.