Hong Kong towerblock fires

What the hell? How on earth do multiple tower blocks catch fire at the same time? Or did it spread from the first? Awful.
 
Hades said:
What the hell? How on earth do multiple tower blocks catch fire at the same time? Or did it spread from the first? Awful.
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It’s allegedly the fire was started because the workers smokes a lot so it’s said that’s the cause of the fire. There has been reports by residents of the workers smoking apparently.

The scaffolding is bamboo but bamboo scaffolding is highly regulated and by law they require a fire resistant layer applied on top. On its own bamboo is not easily lit, I know I won’t be able to start a fire with a cigarette bud to a full size bamboo, imagine doing that to start a BBQ. What made this fire spread at such a rate is the green protective net on the outside. What I don’t know is whether these are fire resistant…they should damn well be if not, but they seem to act like kindling in this case and basically lit up like a curtain and then when it gets hot enough, the bamboo also burns.

As the buildings are not that far apart, a bit of wind blowing them a few feet will cause the next block of flats to lit up too.
 
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There will be workers flats and single occupancy rooms and clothing factories cheek by jowl. Few escape routes and probably severe overcrowding. It will be a nightmare.
 
Hagar said:
There will be workers flats and single occupancy rooms and clothing factories cheek by jowl. Few escape routes and probably severe overcrowding. It will be a nightmare.
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Factories? No, this isn’t the Kowloon Walled City. You don’t know what you are talking about and watches too many HK movies.

What they usually full of are flats, 1 to 2 bed flats, from about the 3rd floor up. The ground floor and perhaps 2nd floor are commerical use, anything from old people’s homes, estate agents, solicitors office and convenience stores like a 7-11 or Circle K. If it has a mall then it will restaurants, clothing retailers and things you find in a mall. It will all be above board because there are 2 kinds of flats in HK. They are very standard and by UK standards they are “overcrowded” but it’s not Kowloon Walled city.

Government owned council flats or private. If it’s government flats then it’s often inspected and if it’s privately owned then these are usually more upmarket and rich people live there and you won’t find a small clothing factory in those as it’s not cost effective.

By the looks of it these were government council flats, they could be sold off I guess privately like the council here sells council properties but chances of it being some sweat shop is highly unlikely.

I lived in one of these, actually went to a school in this area for 6 weeks before moving to the UK.
 
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That's insane, what a disaster. Wonder if someone cheaped out on the green construction netting and it wasn't fire resistant when it should have been or something? Surely no other way the fire could have spread like that between the towers.
 
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Hong Kong police have arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the fire at the housing complex in Tai Po, according to media reports citing officials.
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Horrendous.

Raymond Lin said:
Factories? No, this isn’t the Kowloon Walled City. You don’t know what you are talking about and watches too many HK movies.
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It’s not like Bloodsport anymore, is Kowloon not long gone?
 
shifty_uk said:
Horrendous.



It’s not like Bloodsport anymore, is Kowloon not long gone?
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Kowloon itself is still there but the walled city is long gone, it was “cleaned up” from early 90’s as it approached 97 handover. Where it was is now a park. In the park is a scale model of what it used to look like.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It’s allegedly the fire was started because the workers smokes a lot so it’s said that’s the cause of the fire. There has been reports by residents of the workers smoking apparently.

The scaffolding is bamboo but bamboo scaffolding is highly regulated and by law they require a fire resistant layer applied on top. On its own bamboo is not easily lit, I know I won’t be able to start a fire with a cigarette bud to a full size bamboo, imagine doing that to start a BBQ. What made this fire spread at such a rate is the green protective net on the outside. What I don’t know is whether these are fire resistant…they should damn well be if not, but they seem to act like kindling in this case and basically lit up like a curtain and then when it gets hot enough, the bamboo also burns.

As the buildings are not that far apart, a bit of wind blowing them a few feet will cause the next block of flats to lit up too.
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When I see the images earlier, multiple buildings and those green nets was my first thought as well.
 
Death toll rising, but it’s horrible to see the "hundreds missing" part of headlines.
Hope they can manage to find a lot more people, but the images and videos looked awful. You wouldn’t have much chance in the higher levels.
 
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