Hong Kong officials said on Monday that contractors at the ill-fated housing estate where a fire killed more than 150 people had blanketed buildings with substandard scaffolding netting, and then tried to conceal the unsafe material.

香港官员周一表示，在发生严重火灾导致逾150人死亡的宏福苑，承包商给大楼包覆了未达标准的棚架防护网，并试图掩盖这种不安全的材料。

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said that after a summer typhoon, some of the scaffolding netting used at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in northern Hong Kong was replaced with cheaper material that did not meet fire-safety standards.

香港廉政公署表示，在夏季经历了一场台风后，位于香港北部的屋苑宏福苑的一些棚网被更换为不符合防火标准的廉价材料。

To fool inspectors, netting that met the standards was installed at the base of the scaffolding, where samples are usually taken. Netting is used to protect people below from materials that may fall from bamboo scaffolding, which workers in Hong Kong use when repairing building exteriors.

为了应付检查，他们将符合标准的棚网安装在棚脚，也就是通常取样的位置。香港建筑外墙维修时通常使用竹棚，棚网被用于保护下方行人免受竹棚上方坠物的伤害。

The findings emerged as the death toll from Wednesday’s blaze rose to 151, with the police still combing the towers for bodies and evidence of identification. More than 40 people were still missing. The work of locating and identifying remains would take another three weeks, officials said.

这一调查结果于周三公布之际，火灾遇难人数已升至151人。警方仍在楼内搜寻遗体和可用于身份识别的物品。仍有40余人失踪。官员表示，搜索与确认遗骸身份的工作还需三周时间。

In a sign of how intensely the fires had raged, the police said that some bodies were so severely burned that they had been reduced to ashes, and they acknowledged that they might not be able to recover the remains of all the missing people.

警方表示，部分遗体已严重烧毁，只剩灰烬，由此可见火势之猛烈。他们承认，可能无法找到所有失踪者的遗体。

The latest findings about what contributed to Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades have raised sharp questions about the city’s construction industry and the government’s ability to police it. The probe has exposed gaps in oversight that allowed unsafe material to be installed across multiple buildings — not just the substandard netting, but also flammable polystyrene foam boards that officials said caused the fire to spread rapidly.

对这起香港数十年来最严重火灾原因的最新调查结果引发了对当地建筑业以及政府监管能力的尖锐质疑。调查揭露了监管漏洞，导致不安全的材料得以被安装在多栋建筑上——不仅是不达标的棚网，还有可燃性聚苯乙烯发泡胶板，官员称正是这些发泡胶板导致火势迅速蔓延。

The revelations could further stoke public anger over the disaster, especially because residents had tried for more than a year to warn officials about hazards at the site, including the netting.

调查结果可能进一步激起公众对灾难的愤怒，尤其是居民们在一年多前就试图向官员警告施工现场的各种隐患，包括棚网问题。

The authorities had said last week that the protective netting at Wang Fuk Court met fire-safety standards, citing preliminary testing. The security secretary, Chris Tang, said on Monday that earlier samples had been taken from the ground floor of a building that had been unaffected by the fire. He acknowledged that the results of their tests differed widely from “the observations of our colleagues on-site and from numerous experts and citizens afterward.”

当局上周曾引用初步检测结果，称宏福苑的棚网符合消防安全标准。保安局局长邓炳强周一表示，早期的样本来自一栋未受火灾波及的建筑物的地面楼层。他承认，这些检查结果与“我们在现场救火同事的观察，及专家、市民大众事后的观察”存在很大差异。

The police and anticorruption agency said that 14 people so far have been arrested, including engineering consultants, contractors and scaffolding subcontractors. They also described in the greatest detail yet how contractors acquired and installed unsafe netting.

警方和廉政公署表示，目前已有14人被捕，包括工程顾问、承包商和棚架工程分包商。官方还自事发以来最详尽地描述了承包商如何获取并安装了不符合安全标准的棚网。

Danny Woo Ying-ming, commissioner of the anti-corruption agency, said that after a typhoon damaged the Wang Fuk Court scaffolding in July, individuals whom he did not name bought 2,300 rolls of netting from a local supplier at 54 Hong Kong dollars, or about $7, per roll. That material did not meet fire-safety standards.

廉政专员胡英明表示，7月的台风破坏了宏福苑的棚网，未具名的相关人士此后从当地供应商以每卷54港币的价格购入了2300卷棚网。这些材料不符合阻燃标准。

宏福苑大楼外残留的棚网和竹棚。

But, in October, after a separate fire involving scaffolding netting in the Central district set off official scrutiny, those individuals grew worried that the unsafe netting would be found in random inspections, Mr. Woo said.

胡英明说，但在10月中环发生一起涉及棚网的火灾并引发官方关注后，这些人开始担心不达标的棚网会在随机抽检中暴露。

They then bought 115 rolls of netting that complied with the standards and installed it at the base of each building’s scaffolding in what investigators believe was an attempt to disguise the inferior material above. This netting was 100 Hong Kong dollars, or $13, nearly twice as expensive as the noncompliant netting.

随后，他们购买了115卷符合规范的防护网，并安装在每栋楼的脚手架底部。调查人员认为此举是为了掩饰上方的劣质材料。这种合规防护网的售价为每卷100港元，几乎是不合规材料价格的两倍。

Seven of the 20 samples that officials took from Wang Fuk Court failed to meet fire-safety standards, said Mr. Tang, the security secretary. These 20 samples were taken from areas near windows, from less-accessible spots, “even requiring firefighters to climb out to obtain samples,” he said.

保安局局长邓炳强表示，调查人员从宏福苑采集的20个样本中有七个不符合阻燃标准。这些样本采自靠近窗户的位置、以及难以取到的区域，“甚至消防员需要爬出去才能取到样本”。

Hong Kong’s Buildings Department last week ordered all contractors to review the safety of scaffolding protective netting and other materials at their sites and submit their reports, along with quality certificates and test results, within seven days. On Monday, the department said it had inspected 359 buildings undergoing external maintenance and has taken samples of netting for tests.

香港屋宇署上周已要求所有承建商检查工地上的棚架防护网及其他材料的安全性，并在七天内提交报告及质量证明与检测结果。屋宇署周一表示，他们已检查359栋正在进行外墙维修的建筑，并取走棚网样本进行检测。

周一，警方展示被烧毁公寓的照片。

In recent days, as inspections ramped up, some contractors appeared to be moving quickly to remove netting used at sites. “You can see the mesh being removed in Hong Kong because they are avoiding punishment,” said Jason Poon Chuk-hung, a civil engineer-turned-activist who lobbied the government to address fire safety of scaffolding netting for more than a year.

最近几天，随着检查的力度加大，一些承建商似乎正在迅速移除施工现场使用的棚网。“你能看到香港各处正在拆除棚网，因为他们在逃避处罚，”前土木工程师、现活动人士潘焯鸿说，他呼吁政府关注脚手架防护网消防安全已超过一年。

“If you remove it,” he added, “you can escape from the requirements.”

“如果把它拆掉，”他补充说，“你就能逃避相关要求。”

Even as the authorities sought to show that they were doing their utmost to recover bodies and investigate the disaster, they were also cracking down on expression, in a sign of how anxious officials are about the potential political fallout of this disaster.

在当局竭力展示他们正全力找寻遇难者遗体并调查这场灾难的同时，他们也在打击相关言论，显示出官员们对这场灾难潜在政治后果的担忧。

Over the weekend, officials invoked a new national security law to warn citizens not to use the tragedy to fuel discontent. The Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong issued a statement to warn that it would take action against “those with ulterior motives” who tried to use the tragedy to destabilize national security.

周末，当局援引新的国安法警告市民不要利用这场悲剧煽动不满。香港维护国家安全公署发表声明，警告将针对那些企图利用悲剧“危害国家安全”的“别有用心者”采取行动。

The South China Morning Post reported that the authorities had arrested a man who had called for the establishment of an independent inquiry on the blaze and holding government officials responsible. The police did not respond to requests for comment.

据《南华早报》报道，当局逮捕了一名呼吁成立独立调查委员会并追究政府官员责任的男子。警方未回应置评请求。

It was notable that the government has focused on suppressing critical views rather than on trying to reassure the population that a disaster like this would not happen in other high-rises in the city, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.

伦敦大学亚非学院中国研究院主任曾锐生指出，值得注意的是，政府把重点放在压制批评上，而不是试图安抚市民、保证类似灾难不会在香港其他高楼发生。

“It shows the lack of credibility that the government has with the local population,” he said.

“这表明政府在当地民众中缺乏公信力，”他说。