The fire that broke out in a residential complex in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong on November 26 destroyed seven 31-story buildings. More than 150 people have been confirmed dead, and several thousand have lost their homes. In Japan, the sudden, tragic news caused widespread shock, with some reports calling it the worst fire disaster of the 21st century. When I was living in Hong Kong, I would often pass by that complex, and I remember seeing the brown residential buildings many times from my train window. The tens of thousands of people who pass through this area every day are now confronted with the devastating transformation of a familiar landscape.

We know that the fire started from the plastic sheets covering the scaffolding for renovations that wrapped around each tower in the entire complex, and then spread to neighboring buildings. The central part of Hong Kong mostly comprises high-rise buildings, and the sight of plastic green sheets covering a work site is a familiar one. An extremely large number of people in Hong Kong live in residential complexes. Many city residents have experienced renovations in their own complexes, and many more are likely to undergo renovations in the future. That makes this fire extremely........

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