The fire, which engulfed seven of the eight buildings at Wang Fuk Court, came to an end on Friday morning after blazing for more than 43 hours.
At least 128 people are now known to have died in the tragedy.
While questions were raised on why helicopters and water bombs were not deployed to aid the rescue operation, director of fire services Andy Yeung said such moves would not help extinguish the flames.
“If we were to drop water bombs from above, the water would not reach the fire ground, and would instead only target a building’s exterior,” Yeung said, adding that the presence of a helicopter might increase the airflow and fuel the flames further.
Using drones to contain the ferocious blaze would not have been effective either, according to Yeung.
On reasons to not use taller ladder trucks, Yeung explained: “The taller the ladder trucks, the wider the road has to be.
“The required width for an emergency vehicular access is six metres. If we were to use aerial ladders with a working height of 100 metres, the width [of the road] would have to be 10 metres, making it impossible to use these vehicles in a majority of the roads in Hong Kong.”
