Hong Kong fire: Anti-corruption watchdog arrests 8 people as death toll jumps to 128

After the deadly fire killed over 100 in Hong Kong's high-rise building, the anti-corruption watchdog of the country arrested eight people on Friday (Nov 28) in connection with the deadly housing estate fire that killed at least 128 people. The group of seven men and one woman include "engineering consultants, scaffolding construction contractors and a middleman", said the financial hub's Independent Commission Against Corruption, which has launched a probe into the fire at a residential complex under renovation.

Around 274 people were reported still missing, and hundreds were left homeless in a single night. The Hong Kong government announced to establishment of an assistance fund for the Wang Fuk Court housing estate. The government will allocate 300 million Hong Kong dollars (about $38.5 million) in aid to affected residents.

The city leader, John Lee, speaking in a press conference on Thursday (Nov 27), said that several additional measures have been laid out. The government will also cancel all the celebrity events and government officials will avoid participating in “unnecessary” public events, Lee said.

Moreover, he also announced that each household affected by the fire will receive relief funds. “To help affected residents, we will hand out 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $1,200) to each household,” Lee said.

Hong Kong has one of the world's most severe housing shortages

Median home prices are 20 times higher than the annual household income of Hong Kongers. Amid the glitzy towers of the financial hub, most commoners can't afford a place to call home, depending instead on public housing. But there, the average waiting time for a public rental flat could be up to 5.5 years.

‘Coffin homes’ with six square metres for a person: The poor face the brunt of the housing crisis

Low-income, working poor and elderly populations end up living in overcrowded subdivided flats or SDUs that have only 65 square feet or 6 square metres of space per person. There were around 108,200 such subdivided flats or SDUs in Hong Kong as of 2021, housing over 220,000 people.

Many of these flats lack proper ventilation or fire escapes. In many cases, toilets and bathrooms are shared by multiple families.

The SDUs, also known as “coffin homes”, "cubicle apartments" or "cage homes," could be as small as 15 square feet. They are often stacked like bunks in wire-mesh enclosures, and notorious fire traps too, with narrow corridors blocking evacuation. Flammable materials like polystyrene are used in construction, and shared wiring overloads electricity circuits.