Hong Kong officials on Sunday announced that investigators combing the charred husks of the high-rise buildings of the Wang Fuk Court have so far found 146 bodies of residents trapped in the blazes that started Wednesday and burned until it was extinguished Friday, the Associated Press reports.
“The five alarm fire at Wang Fuk Court, Tai Po, exposed serious deficiencies of [Prestige Construction & Engineering Company] in site safety management, including the extensive use of foam boards to block up windows during building repairs,” the city’s Chinese Communist-controlled government said in a statement, referring to the contractors who had clad the buildings in bamboo scaffolding that fueled the blaze. The source of the ignition is still under investigation.