High-rise, high anxiety

Grim reminder: Floral tributes for victims of the fire at Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Tai Po district in Hong Kong on Dec 6. At least 159 people died in the city’s deadliest fire in nearly eight decades. — Bloomberg

SHEER horror. That was what I felt watching the news on the devastating fire in Hong Kong on Nov 26 that engulfed seven blocks of high-rise apartments. It brought back memories of the 2017 Grenfell inferno in a 24-storey residential tower in London that killed 71 people.

For many experts, both the Wang Fuk Court and the Grenfell Tower disasters have many similarities. The public inquiry for the latter, headed by retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick, found that the blaze occurred largely due to incompetence, dishonesty, and greed among government officials, architects, the construction industry, and regulators.