Contractors used unsafe safety nets at the apartment complex, according to authorities

• investigation: The number of people detained on suspicion of responsibility for the fire that killed more than 150 people in Hong Kong has risen to 14.
• tragedy: With bodies found on the roof, the death toll in the Hong Kong fire reached 146 people

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said that after a summer typhoon, part of the protective netting used for scaffolding in the Wang Fook Court residential area in northern Hong Kong was replaced with cheaper materials that did not meet fire safety standards.

To fool inspectors, a standard net was installed at the base of the scaffold, where samples are usually collected. The mesh is used to protect people under materials that can fall from bamboo scaffolding, which workers in Hong Kong use to repair building facades.

These discoveries came as the death toll from Wednesday’s fire rose to 151 people, while police were still searching the towers for bodies and identification evidence. More than 40 people are still missing. Authorities said work to locate and identify the remains would take another three weeks.

In a sign of the severity of the fires, police said some bodies were so charred that they turned to ash, and admitted they may not be able to recover the remains of all the missing.

• Concern about paintings: Authorities were alerted to safety violations more than a year before the Hong Kong fire

Recent findings about what contributed to Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades have raised important questions about the city’s construction industry and the government’s ability to oversee it. The investigation revealed oversight failures that allowed unsafe materials to be installed in many buildings — not only substandard safety nets but also flammable polystyrene foam sheets that authorities said caused the fire to spread quickly.

This revelation may increase public anger over the disaster, especially since residents have tried for more than a year to warn authorities of the dangers there, including safety nets.

Authorities said last week that the protective nets made by the Wang Fook Court met fire safety standards, citing preliminary tests. Security Minister Chris Tang said on Monday that previous samples had been collected from the ground floor of a building that was not affected by the fire. He admitted that the test results differed significantly from “the observations of our colleagues on the ground and many experts and citizens afterwards.”

Police and the anti-corruption agency said 14 people have been arrested so far, including engineering consultants, contractors and scaffolding subcontractors. They also described, in the greatest detail to date, how contractors obtained and installed unsecured protection nets.

• Fire in Hong Kong: See before and after the destruction of buildings in China

Danny Wu Yingming, commissioner of the anti-corruption agency, said that after a typhoon destroyed scaffolding at Wang Fook Court in July, unnamed individuals purchased 2,300 rolls of fabric from a local supplier for HK$54, or about $7, per roll. This material does not meet fire safety standards.

But in October, after a separate fire involving scaffolding nets in the central area prompted a formal investigation, those individuals became concerned that unsafe nets could be found in random inspections, Wu said.

They then purchased 115 rolls of matching mesh and attached them to the base of every scaffolding in the building, in what investigators believe was an attempt to hide the inferior materials used above. This monitor costs HK$100, or US$13, almost twice the price of a substandard monitor.

According to Tang, the security minister, seven of the 20 samples collected by authorities at Wang Fook Palace did not meet fire safety standards. He added that these 20 samples were collected in areas close to windows, and in places that are difficult to reach, “which required firefighters to simply climb up to obtain them.”

Last week, Hong Kong’s Building Administration ordered all contractors to review the safety of scaffolding nets and other materials at their construction sites and submit their reports, along with quality certificates and test results, within seven days. The administration said on Monday that it had inspected 359 buildings undergoing external maintenance and collected mesh samples for analysis.

• Fire in Hong Kong: Time lapse showing the intensity of fire in an apartment building; Watch the video

In recent days, as inspections have increased, some contractors have appeared to quickly remove protective nets used on construction sites. “You can see the barriers being removed in Hong Kong because they are avoiding punishment,” said Jason Boon Chuk Hong, a civil engineer turned activist, who has lobbied the government for more than a year to address fire safety in scaffolding networks.

“If you remove that, you can escape the demands,” he added.

Even as the authorities tried to prove that they were doing their best to recover the bodies and investigate the disaster, they also suppressed freedom of expression, demonstrating the authorities’ concern about the potential political consequences of this tragedy.

Over the weekend, authorities invoked a new national security law to warn citizens against using the tragedy to stoke discontent. Hong Kong’s Office for the Protection of National Security issued a statement warning that it would take action against “those with ulterior motives” who tried to use the tragedy to destabilize national security.

The South China Morning Post reported that authorities arrested a man who called for an independent investigation into the fire and for government officials to be held accountable. Police did not respond to requests for comment.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said it was notable that the government focused on suppressing critical opinion rather than trying to reassure residents that such a disaster would not happen to other skyscrapers in the city.

– He said – This indicates the lack of credibility of the government among the local population.