Christian Shepherd

There was bamboo scaffolding, there was mesh and foam boards that were being used to protect the building that seemed to have been highly flammable.

And so it spread much faster than was expected.

At the same time, there were problems with the alarm systems in the building.

So many people were trapped inside because they didn't hear about the fire until it was too difficult to escape.

And that touches on deeper problems about whether or not the government is responsive to the needs of the people.

Obviously, in Hong Kong, there has been a lot of concern about increasing encroachment from Beijing, centralization of power, unwillingness to allow more people to stand for office.

And that has bled together with some of these concerns because...

In this instance, it seems that the government didn't feel it needed to respond or didn't respond fast enough.

And people are beginning to connect those dots.

For some residents, this seems to be an aspect of trying to focus on just the narrow causes and not the deeper ones.

And so part of the concern that you've heard is that, well, really, this is about a more systemic failure of governance.

And that is, at the moment, off the table.

There don't seem to be big inquiries.

There don't seem to be promises to change things at a more fundamental level.