Police in Hong Kong arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter Thursday, after a deadly fire consumed multiple apartment blocks, leaving at least 44 people dead and another 279 missing, marking the city’s deadliest blaze since the Second World War.
Hundreds of residents were evacuated as flames spread rapidly across bamboo scaffolding and mesh cladding put up for renovations, leaping from building to building faster than the emergency services could react, and affecting seven blocks.
Firefighters were still trying to extinguish blazes in several buildings Thursday morning, as they began searching the lower floors of others, with the death toll expected to rise.
Seven hours after the fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon, flames could still be seen raging in several of the 32-story buildings, while other towers continued to smoulder. A huge plume of smoke rose above them, visible even against the night sky. A smell like burning rubber pervaded the surrounding area, and the occasional crack and crash could be heard from within the towers.
At least 279 people are still unaccounted for and several dozen hospitalized. Fire authorities said the majority of residents had evacuated, but they were still receiving emergency calls from people trapped inside well into the evening.
A fleet of fire engines and ambulances filled the roads leading up to Wang Fuk Court. Above, hundreds of people had gathered on a footbridge, watching in stunned horror as the buildings continued to burn. At one point, firefighters had to scramble to a school across the river from the main blaze, after a small fire broke out there, but they were able to quickly put it out.
Part of a larger public housing estate, Wang Fuk Court comprises around 2,000 flats, housing an estimated 4,000 people. Police said many residents in neighbouring buildings had also evacuated out of an abundance of caution.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee described the fire as a “catastrophe” and said he had convened a meeting of the city’s emergency response team, adding that temporary shelters had been arranged for residents displaced by the blaze.
“The fire has resulted in multiple casualties, including the death of a firefighter in the line of duty,” Mr. Lee said in a statement. “I express my deepest sorrow and extend my sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and the injured.”
Multiple people have died after a massive fire engulfed multiple high-rise towers of a residential complex in Hong Kong's northern Tai Po district on Wednesday, with thick grey smoke billowing out as emergency services battled to subdue the blaze.
Reuters
The firefighter was identified as 37-year-old Ho Wai-ho, who Hong Kong director of fire services Andy Yeung described as a “dedicated and gallant” comrade.
A “new town” developed in the 1970s and 1980s to relieve pressure on Hong Kong’s traditional population centres, Tai Po is located in the northern part of the territory, close to the border with China.
The close-knit community created by Tai Po’s relative geographic isolation and large amount of public housing was on show Wednesday, with the streets flooded with volunteers carrying and wheeling boxes of water, food and other supplies to the temporary shelters.
Transporting donated meals from a nearby barbecue restaurant to a sports ground that was now housing around 150 displaced families, local Ryan Wong said he felt compelled to help. Like many Tai Po residents, he had friends who lived in Wang Fuk Court, but said they had evacuated.
“A lot of elderly people live there though,” Mr. Wong added, “so we’re really worried.”
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Wednesday’s fire is the deadliest the city has seen since the Second World War, outstripping a blaze which tore through a commercial building in Kowloon in November, 1996, killing 41 people. That fire was later found to be caused by welding during internal renovations.
The cause of the Wang Fuk Court fire is still unknown, but police said they had arrested two directors and a consultant of a company involved in renovations on the estate – ongoing since 2024 – on suspicion of “gross negligence.” Officials said they suspected construction materials used failed to meet safety standards.
While fires are rare in Hong Kong, Wednesday’s blaze will renew calls to phase out the use of bamboo scaffolding, an iconic emblem of Hong Kong’s development that has increasingly come to be seen as too dangerous. After a smaller fire in March, the government said it would phase out its use.
The Wang Fuk Court blaze was reminiscent of 2017’s deadly Grenfell Tower fire in Britain. Speaking to CNN, Stephen Mackenzie, a U.K.-based independent fire and emergency planning consultant, warned the death toll from Wednesday’s blaze could yet eclipse that disaster.
“We just shouldn’t see this. After Grenfell, after the extensive public inquiry, we should not see fire spread from a block, to a block, to a block, in an occupied premises,” he told the broadcaster.
“This is tantamount to gross negligence, it should not happen. It flies in the face of the entire premise of fire and life safety legislation.”
With reports from the Associated Press and Reuters