The Hong Kong police on Thursday morning arrested three people tied to a construction company that installed scaffolding and netting on the buildings involved in the city’s worst fire in decades, saying they had reason to believe that the company’s “gross negligence” had led to the rapid spread of the blaze.
The police said that building materials used by the company for the work at Wang Fuk Court, such as protective netting, tarpaulin and sheeting, may not have been up to fire safety standards. The police did not identify the company or release the names of those arrested, but they said the people were two directors and a consultant, and that they had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
Separately, the government identified the registered contractor for the building complex as Prestige Construction and Engineering Company.
The mesh netting on the buildings that caught fire was probably a factor in how quickly the fire spread, said Tony Za, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers Building Division. Typically made of fibers and plastic, such netting is used to keep construction materials and other objects from falling off bamboo scaffolding, which workers in Hong Kong commonly use when repairing a building’s exterior, and hitting the ground below.
The material in the netting is required to be noncombustible, and the contractor would have been required to provide a certificate attesting to that. But based on videos that showed the Wang Fuk Court fire’s swift movement, Mr. Za said he had reason to suspect that the netting was not up to standard.
“If this was noncombustible, the rate of the fire’s spread shouldn’t have been as quick,” he said.
The fire likely originated outside the building, on the bamboo scaffolding, Mr. Za said.
John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said the police and fire department had created a special task force to investigate the fire.
Alexandra Stevenson is the Shanghai bureau chief for The Times, reporting on China’s economy and society.
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