Wednesday’s deadly inferno in Hong Kong’s Tai Po District has sparked a wave of empathy and solidarity, triggering a nationwide call for fire safety improvements.
I began editing Thursday’s edition in our newsroom in the afternoon while watching the catastrophe live on TVB News Channel with some of my team members. Initially, we thought it was “just” another blaze affecting a few flats in one of the many high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong. Of course, quicker than we would ever have thought, the blaze swiftly worsened into an inferno before our disbelieving eyes.
Our empathy for the probably huge number of victims was eerily perceptible in the newsroom. We remarked that a calamity like the one we were witnessing live on TV could have occurred in Macau or virtually anywhere in the world. Touch wood, our city has so far been spared such a deadly blaze. Britain’s Grenfell Tower fire, a catastrophic and deadly inferno that occurred in London in 2017, is burned into my memory. In the early 1980s, when I was still working in Hong Kong, I remember media colleagues telling me about the Shek Kip Mei shanty town fire that, on December 25 (of all days) in 1953 (the year I was born), left 53,000 squatters homeless and ultimately launched the then British-ruled Chinese territory’s multi-storey public housing programme.
In 1979, a huge fire gutted Macau’s Lam Mau squatter area, leaving 3,000 people homeless. Ultimately, the catastrophe accelerated the local government’s public housing construction. In 1989, a squatter area blaze in Ilha Verde district killed two and rendered around 200 people homeless.
I believe that these kinds of incidents reaffirm the age-old phrase that something bad can ultimately result in something good, reflecting the common belief that negative experiences can lead to positive outcomes. For instance, bad experiences can motivate us to make significant changes in our lives, leading to improvements that may not have occurred otherwise.
Of course, we could certainly do without disasters, but the harsh reality is that they happen more often than we would hope. That’s why we need to learn from catastrophic events, particularly deadly ones, as quickly as possible to reduce their occurrence. However, we must always accept the reality that achieving absolute safety is merely a goal that is, in itself, unachievable in the world we live in. Adhering to realism as the foundation of reasonable thinking, only by learning from mistakes can we hope for future achievements. I hope that, before long, AI will be able to help us prevent and mitigate more catastrophes than our all-too-human brains have managed so far.
Most probably, the conflagration that killed at least 146 people in Tai Po was not a freak accident but was directly caused by human error—workers reportedly used highly flammable Styrofoam in conjunction with bamboo poles and construction mesh while renovating the external walls of eight residential towers located closely to each other.
Within just a few hours after the disaster, President Xi Jinping extended his condolences over the deadly fire, expressing sympathy to the bereaved families of the victims and those affected by the disaster. He also urged all-out efforts to extinguish the fire and minimise casualties and losses.
Later that fateful day, Macau Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai also conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims of the blaze, expressing his profound sorrow and grief. The local government later announced a 30-million-pataca donation to Hong Kong’s fire relief effort.
Sam’s message of condolences to Hong Kong took into consideration the historically fraternal bond between China’s two Special Administrative Regions. Both cities, which returned to Chinese administration in 1997 and 1999 respectively, are part of the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Thousands of Macau people live and work in Hong Kong – and vice versa. Some 70 percent of Macau’s exports are shipped to Hong Kong and Hongkongers account for nearly one-quarter of Macau’s visitor arrivals.
Moreover, much to my satisfaction, Sam urged all public entities during a meeting with his top officials at Government Headquarters on Friday to plan, organise, and implement citywide tasks of screening, identifying, and minimising major safety risks in various aspects of civil society, and to put the respective measures in place in the wake of the Tai Po inferno.
A timely meeting indeed!
I have lived for over four decades in both low-rise walk-ups and residential towers, in both Hong Kong and in Macau. No doubt, as the world’s most densely populated territory—around 20,000 per km²—the risk of a fire affecting any of us is VERY REAL. I ought to add that, compared to three or four decades ago, the risk has been considerably reduced thanks to a range of measures, such as a better-equipped and organised fire service and improved public awareness of the need for fire safety—starting in one’s own home, such as not leaving household appliances running when going out, even for a brief interval.
As a realist, I am also convinced that scaring people a little is possibly the most effective way to keep their fire risk awareness up and running.
According to Friday’s local government statement, the ongoing public safety risk prevention and control efforts include extensive and frequent cross-departmental inspections of construction sites and building renovation projects with bamboo scaffolding across the city.
Besides, the State Council Work Safety Committee in Beijing has issued a circular requesting inspections of the country’s high-rise buildings to identify and remove major fire hazards, the Ministry of Emergency Management announced on Saturday.
That’s the Central People’s Government’s prompt and speedy response to the Tai Po inferno.
Apart from declaring three days of mourning on Saturday, the Hong Kong government has pledged free housing to the survivors of the inferno until they are able to rebuild their homes. As of yesterday, 1,500 people had taken up the offer. Reportedly, about 1,900 households have been affected by the blaze.
Once again, the catastrophe has shown Hong Kong people’s great empathy for their fellow residents and their willingness to help those in need, such as by donating a large amount of daily necessities, including clothing and food. Pets made homeless by the fire are being taken care of by volunteers.
Scores of mourners went to Tai Po yesterday to express their grief, sorrow, and solidarity. Many were in tears while praying for the victims. Hong Kong media reported yesterday that the line of mourners extended for about 2 km.
Moreover, apart from the Hong Kong government setting up a HK$300 million fund to support the fire victims, private enterprises have donated over HK$800 million.
Regrettably, some political activists pursuing ulterior motives are said to be keen to take advantage of the population’s understandable distress over the fire’s death toll and destruction by trying to turn it into agitation against the Hong Kong and central governments, similar to the ill-fated “Umbrella Movement” of 2014.
This would betray people’s genuine empathy for the victims and solidarity with their bereaved families. Let’s hope the agitation will die in the bud.
Furthermore, despicable fraudsters are reported to have “diversified” their vile business by attempting to cheat those affected by the fire. They deserve to end up behind bars for as many years as the law allows.
No doubt, the cause of the fire needs to be thoroughly investigated, and those found responsible need to be punished according to the law. As is often the case, there are likely multiple causes for the disaster.
Fire safety regulations and precautions need to be upgraded as swiftly and effectively as possible. Anything bad that happens must teach us a lesson on how to avoid something like that happening to us again. That way, we can make good come from bad—a valid idea, in my view, expressed by the Chinese philosopher Laozi in his Tao Te Ching (published in the 2nd century BCE) and the 14th-century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio in his Il Decameron.
Last but not least, we should all remember and honour the fireman who died while fighting the blaze and all the domestic helpers from Indonesia and the Philippines who were seriously injured or perished in the fire, one of them saving a baby from certain death. I hope their families will be commensurately compensated, as will all others affected in one way or another by the inferno
– Harald Brüning
