Anyone who has been properly registered will be allowed inside the fire-ravaged buildings at Wang Fuk Court to help retrieve their belongings, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said on Friday, dismissing reports that volunteers had been barred from going up to flats to assist returning residents.

The clarification came after local media quoted some of the residents displaced by the disaster as saying they had been told by their designated government social workers that volunteers could not accompany them back to their homes in the Tai Po residential estate, but Sun said authorities had issued no such instructions .

"The Social Welfare Department did not give any directions to designated social workers to bar volunteers from accompanying residents returning home," Sun said.

"The department's instruction is that residents should receive full assistance.

"Up to four people are allowed to return to a unit... as long as they are registered. The four are not limited to family members, they can be friends or volunteers."

Residents affected by November's fire can return home in batches at designated times to salvage belongings from the coming Monday, and the government has said they may be allowed to make repeated trips back to their flats.



Edited by Tony Sabine