Episode Details

Authorities in Hong Kong say the number of people killed in an apartment fire last week has now risen to 151. This as an investigation is pointing to the building's renovation as a catalyst for the tragedy. We're showing you here images released today by the Hong Kong police force showing the interior of an apartment that was destroyed in the fire, giving you a sense of the damage caused by the flames inside with walls blackened, floor to ceiling, and a lifetime of memories reduced to ash.

香港当局表示，上周发生的一场公寓火灾的死亡人数现已上升至151人。调查显示，这场悲剧的导火索可能与大楼正在进行的翻修工程有关。我们现在展示的是香港警方今天发布的画面，画面显示了一套在火灾中被彻底烧毁的公寓内部景象，让人直观感受到火焰造成的破坏——墙壁从地板到天花板一片焦黑，一生的记忆化为灰烬。

Mary-Anne Demayne joining me now. She's been following this story all morning for us. Those images, Mary-Anne, are just unbelievable, devastating, but really speak to the intensity of this fire.

玛丽安·德梅恩现在加入我们。她整个上午都在为我们跟进这条新闻。玛丽安，这些画面令人难以置信、令人心碎，也真实反映了这场火灾的猛烈程度。

And now, of course, the investigation looking into everything in terms of overall what happened, but I guess now what needs to be done to keep these buildings or other apartment buildings safe.

当然，目前调查正在全面审视事情的来龙去脉，同时也在思考接下来该采取什么措施，才能确保这些大楼以及其他公寓建筑的安全。

Yeah, that is the focus of the investigation. Why did these 7 31-story towers go up in flames so quickly, leaving all of that destruction and all of that death in its wake? So they're looking at the materials from the renovation that was underway at these buildings, and according to investigators, all signs point to the nylon meshing there, that green, that's what's left of it anyway, that was surrounding the bamboo scaffolding outside of these buildings, they say did not meet flame retardant standards.

是的，这正是调查的重点。为什么这七栋31层高的住宅楼会如此迅速地陷入火海，留下如此严重的破坏和大量人员死亡？因此，调查人员正在检查这些大楼翻修过程中所使用的材料。根据调查结果，所有迹象都指向包裹在大楼外部竹制脚手架上的尼龙防护网——也就是你看到的那种绿色材料，至少这是它残留的部分——这些材料并不符合阻燃标准。

In other words, it was not up to the fire safety code, and that's why they say this flame spread so quickly and engulfed these buildings so quickly. On top of that, the renovation was using these foam blocks that they say was blocking the windows. These also led to the fire spreading very quickly outside of this building, led to the glass exploding in the windows, and that helped spread the fire inside the buildings, leading to the images you saw just