39 Killed in Fire in Hong Kong Office Building

HONG KONG -- Rescue workers Thursday found 39 bodies in the burnt-out remains of a 16-story commercial building, and said sparks from a welding torch were the likely cause of the deadliest building fire in Hong Kong's modern history.


Governor Chris Patten fought back tears as he described the blaze as a "terrible tragedy" for Hong Kong and demanded tougher safety standards in the aging towers that were at the founding of the territory's economic rise.


Emergency services put the toll at 39 confirmed dead and 80 hospitalized. Police sources said at least one person was still unaccounted for.


After the 21-hour fight to douse the flames, doctors and forensic scientists moved into the blackened skeleton of the Garley Commercial Building to begin a grim task.


Working under floodlights, the white-dressed experts clustered around the charred, water-soaked bodies of the victims, seeking to identify them and the cause of their deaths.


Peter Cheung, director of the Fire Services Department, said the toll was "the worst [building] fire in 100 years."


Initial investigations show "the fire may have been caused by sparks from welding being done by maintenance workers in the lift shaft," Cheung said.


The flames quickly swept through the first four stories and then leapt up the lift shaft to the top six floors, he said.


Scenes of the fire were apocalyptic.


Trapped people threw themselves out of windows as flames licked around them, or clung desperately to air conditioners on the building's outside wall, tantalizingly out of reach of firemen on aerial ladders. Others threw down notes in an attempt to get help.


At one point 200 firefighters, using 38 engines, were deployed.


Most of the dead were found early Thursday on the 15th floor of the building, which housed a department store, a telephone paging service, a recording studio and fashion and jewelry workshops.


Twenty-two of the fatalities were staff of one of Hong Kong's most famous goldsmiths, Chow Sang Sang Jewellery Co. Ltd., which has its administrative office in the building.


Chow Yong-sing, spokesman for the group, said the company had set up an emergency fund of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($130,000) to assist families of staff injured or killed.


Patten, in an emotional address to Hong Kong's legislative assembly, paid tribute to a fireman who had lost his life.


"This is plainly a terrible tragedy," Patten said. He called on officials to deliver preliminary findings into the disaster within two weeks.


Patten called on deputies to speed up passage of a bill, submitted in May, to strengthen fire regulations in older commercial buildings by improving safety exits and access for the emergency services and installing fire doors.


The measures could also be extended to older office buildings, he said.


Cheung said Garley Building lacked firefighting equipment and said plastics had been stored there that hastened the spread of the flames. Many doors were also locked.


The disaster pricked the conscience of a city famous for its money-making skills but also notorious for often putting greed above safety.


Kowloon is the most densely populated district in the world.


Beyond two or three tourist avenues dubbed "the Golden Mile" for their smart shops and hotels, it is a warren of 20- or 30-year-old buildings used as garment sweatshops, small factories, offices or store rooms, mixed with crowded apartments.