RESIDENTS FACE GRIM CONDITIONS IN BUILDING
Occupants of blaze-hit New Lucky House are allowed back into the block, but some decide to stay away from blackened and burned flats
A building where five people were killed in a blaze last week reopened yesterday but residents had to come to terms with blackened and burned-out flats, debris and even burglaries, and some decided not to return home soon.
The grim conditions in the 60-year-old New Lucky House in densely populated Yau Ma Tei were revealed after a cordon was lifted at the building hit by an intense fire on Wednesday. The blaze in the 16-storey property also injured 43 others.
The fire severely damaged the first to the fourth floors of the Jordan Road building, leaving charred corridors, scattered ashes and debris, as well as exposed steel bars and electrical wiring.
With no electricity supply on these four floors yet, temporary lights were set up along the corridors. On the first floor, pillars were damaged in the private Power Gymnasium while some equipment also had burn marks.
Piles of rubbish littered different floors with some blocking the back stairs. A mattress was left leaning on the seventh floor with four discarded cigarette butts.
A resident living on the sixth floor returned to pack her belongings and said she planned to stay with a relative until the conditions in the building had improved.
“I will not stay here even if the electricity and water supply are restored. It is very smelly and inconvenient. The lift is also out of service,” said the woman who preferred to remain anonymous.
A police notice said electricity and gas supply were only available in some flats.
A man, who did not want to be identified, said he was hired to fix the closed-circuit television system and electricity after some residents reported burglaries.
“The casualties and damage are already severe. There are people who are taking advantage [of this situation] to commit theft. So lamentable,” the man said.
Police earlier said two circuit boards, valued at HK$200,000, were taken from the building’s lifts, and had listed the case as burglary.
Officers from the Fire Services Department continued to carry out investigations at the scene yesterday.
The building also had fire extinguishers uninspected for some years. One was last checked in January 2021 and the next inspection had been scheduled in 2022.
Authorities earlier said New Lucky House, which also contained subdivided flats and guest houses, had not complied with a fire safety order for 16 years and 11 floors had damaged fire resistance doors. It also had not observed a building inspection order for six years.
The owners’ corporation chairwoman, surnamed Yip, yesterday said it had been working on the orders but the price quoted by the consultant was triple the government’s estimate.
The fire safety consultancy company earlier said it would take HK$1.2 million to upgrade facilities in the building but the firm later asked for HK$30 million as it also had to conduct maintenance work at the same time.
“We think it is problematic. We are addressing the issue,” Yip told local media.
The government earlier said the corporation had hired a consultant to address fire safety notices in 2015 and 2020 respectively.
In response to criticism from some residents blaming guest houses for being reluctant to commit to maintenance, Yip, who was also an operator, said she did not take sides.
“There are many stakeholders in the owners’ corporation. Nobody has the final say. We need to balance different interests,” she said.
Yip added that the building had spent more than HK$50,000 last year to change 67 fire extinguishers and fix fire resistance doors.
New Lucky House was one of 9,578 buildings in Hong Kong that had failed to comply with their fire safety notices as of last December.
The Buildings Department said more than 60 per cent of the orders it and the fire service had issued were not observed.
I will not stay here even if the electricity and water supply are restored NEW LUCKY HOUSE RESIDENT