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从昨天晚上开始，英语君的朋友圈就被“香港火灾”刷屏，火灾无情人间有爱，大家都在为香港同胞祈福。

据新华社，香港警方和消防部门27日凌晨召开记者会宣布，大埔屋邨宏福苑火灾目前已造成44人遇难，45人受伤。警方已拘捕3名涉嫌误杀的男子。

国外媒体也在关注此事，以下是美联社对火灾的报道：

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades burned through the night, leaving at least 44 people dead and 279 reported missing with rescuers still pulling residents from blazing high-rise apartment buildings into the morning.

这是香港数十年来最致命的一场火灾，持续燃烧了一整夜，造成至少 44 人死亡，279人失踪。直到第二天早上，救援人员仍在从熊熊燃烧的高层公寓楼中救出居民。

Police had arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with fire which began Wednesday afternoon in a housing complex in Tai Po district, a suburb in the New Territories. By Thursday morning local time, the fire was yet to be put out and rescues continued.

警方以涉嫌误杀的罪名逮捕了三名男子，怀疑他们与这场大火有关。周三下午，新界郊区大埔的一个住宅区内开始起火。截至当地时间周四早上，火势仍未完全扑灭，救援行动仍在继续。

Hundreds of residents were evacuated as the fire spread across seven of the eight towers in the Wang Fuk Court complex, as bright flames and smoke shot out of windows.

宏福苑住宅区8栋大楼有7栋被大火蔓延，数百名居民被紧急疏散，明亮的火焰和浓烟不断从窗户中喷出。
Forty of the 44 fatalities were declared dead at the scene, officials said. At least 62 others were injured, many suffering from burn and inhalation injuries.官员称，在44名遇难者中，有40人在现场被宣布死亡。此外，至少还有 62 人受伤，其中许多人是烧伤和吸入性损伤。

为什么这次的火灾会如此严重？

Authorities suspected some materials on the exterior walls of the high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, as the rapid spread of the fire was unusual.
有关部门怀疑，高层建筑外墙使用的部分材料未达到耐火标准，因为这场火势蔓延得异常迅速。

 

Police also said they found Styrofoam materials -- that are highly flammable -- outside the windows on each floor near the lift lobby of the one unaffected tower, believed to be installed by a construction company.

警方还表示，他们在未受波及的那栋大楼里发现了高度易燃的泡沫塑料，这些材料被放置在电梯大堂附近、各层窗户外，初步判断是某施工公司安装的。

“We have reason to believe that those in charge of the construction company were grossly negligent,” said Eileen Chung, a senior superintendent of police. The three men arrested, aged 52 to 68, are the directors and an engineering consultant of the firm.香港高级警司钟爱玲（音译，Eileen Chung）表示：“我们有理由相信，该施工公司的负责人存在严重疏忽。”被捕的三名男子年龄介于52至68岁之间，分别是该公司的两名董事及一名工程顾问。
Officials said the fire started on the external scaffolding of one of the buildings, a 32-story tower, and later spread to inside the building and then to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.官方通报称，大火最初从其中一栋32层高的大楼外部脚手架引燃，随后蔓延至楼体内部，再扩散到附近其他建筑物——强风天气很可能加速了火势蔓延。

BBC在报道中特别提到了脚手架（scaffolding）问题：

A fire safety expert believes the large amount of bamboo scaffolding connecting the apartment blocks fanned last night's fire.

一名消防安全专家认为，连接各栋住宅楼的大量竹制脚手架，助长了昨夜大火的蔓延。

The blaze was able to penetrate rapidly, causing a large number of deaths and injuries, said Professor Jiang Liming from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

香港理工大学的姜利明教授表示，这场火势能够迅速穿透多栋楼体，导致大量伤亡，与这些脚手架有直接关系。

Bamboo scaffolding is an iconic sight across Hong Kong and widely used in construction.

竹制脚手架是香港街头一道独特的风景，也长期被广泛应用在建筑工程中。

Earlier this year, authorities announced plans to phase out bamboo in favour of sturdier, fire-resistant steel. They cited bamboo combustibility and tendency to deteriorate over time.

但在今年早些时候，当局已宣布计划逐步淘汰竹制脚手架，改用更坚固、防火性能更好的钢制脚手架。原因包括竹子的可燃性，以及随着时间推移易老化、变质。

Prof Jiang also noted that the blocks at Wang Fuk Court were "relatively old" - they were built in the 1980s - so "the the glass windows are not that fire resilient".

姜教授还指出，宏福苑的小区楼龄“相对较老”——建于上世纪80年代——因此“玻璃窗的耐火性能并不高”。

"The modern buildings have double pane glass windows, but for this one they perhaps used just a single pane... [which makes it] very easy to be broken by the flames and the flames can then penetrate through the facade," he told BBC News.

他向 BBC 新闻表示：“现在的现代楼宇普遍配备双层玻璃，但这些大楼可能仍然使用单层玻璃……火焰非常容易把玻璃烧裂，然后顺势从外立面渗入室内。”

🙏🏻愿所有同胞平平安安🙏🏻
本期重点单词

manslaughter：/ ˈmænslɔːtə(r) / n.过失杀人

fatality：/ fəˈtæləti / n.(事故或暴力导致的) 死亡

Styrofoam / ˈstaɪrəˌfəʊm/  n.泡沫聚苯乙烯

scaffolding / ˈskæfəldɪŋ / n.脚手架

bamboo / ˌbæmˈbuː / n.竹，竹子，adj.竹制的