Firefighters continue to tackle deadly Hong Kong tower blaze
Three men from a construction company were arrested after the blaze, which has killed at least 83 people.
The death toll from a deadly fire that broke out at a residential apartment complex in Hong Kong has risen to 83, authorities said.
Firefighters battled one of the deadliest modern blazes in the city’s history for a second day on Thursday, fighting to control the fire which blackened several high-rise towers.
Three men from a construction company have been arrested, and rescues were continuing.
Thick smoke poured out of the Wang Fuk Court complex in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near the border with the mainland, on Thursday morning.
The fire which started mid-afternoon on Wednesday had spread across seven of the complex’s eight buildings, and four of the towers were under control by morning, the city’s fire services said.
One firefighter was among the 83 people confirmed dead, officials said. At least 70 people were injured, many suffering from burn and inhalation injuries.
Three men, the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company, were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
“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 housing complex consisted of eight buildings with almost 2,000 apartments for about 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. It was built in the 1980s and had been undergoing a major renovation.
Authorities suspected some materials on the exterior walls of the high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, allowing the unusually fast spread of the fire.
The fire started on the external scaffolding of a 32-storey tower, then spread on the bamboo scaffolding and construction netting to the inside of the building and then to the other buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.
Firefighters aimed water at the intense flames from high on ladder trucks, but conditions for fighting the fire and rescuing people remained challenging.
“Debris and scaffolding of the affected buildings (is) falling down,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of fire service operations.
“The temperature inside the buildings concerned is very high. It’s difficult for us to enter the building and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations.”
Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects, though the government said earlier this year that it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.
A fire safety expert said the incident “is quite shocking,” as regulations generally require buildings to be spaced apart to keep fires from spreading from one building to the next.
“Typically, they don’t spread beyond the building of origin,” said Alex Webb, a fire safety engineer at CSIRO Infrastructure Technologies in Australia, saying the materials police cited could explain why the fires spread.
About 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters overnight and Hong Kong leader John Lee said that at midnight, 279 people were missing.
Rescues were continuing in some of the towers, but authorities did not provide updates on the missing people or how many were still trapped inside the ravaged buildings during a press conference on Thursday.
Police on Thursday also searched the office of Prestige Construction & Engineering Company, which the Associated Press confirmed was in charge of renovations in the tower complex. Police seized boxes of documents as evidence, according to local media. Phones for Prestige rang unanswered.
Police said they found Styrofoam, which is highly flammable, attached to the windows on each floor near the elevator lobby of the one unaffected tower. It was believed to have been installed by the construction company but the purpose was not clear. Secretary for Security Chris Tang said they would investigate the materials further.
Mr Lee said on Thursday that officials will hold talks with industry stakeholders on plans to replace bamboo scaffolding across the city with metal.
Authorities will also be carrying out immediate inspections of all housing estates that are undergoing major renovation work to ensure scaffolding and construction materials meet safety standards.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the firefighter who died and extended sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He also urged efforts to minimise casualties and losses.
Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram to Hong Kong’s bishop on Thursday, saying he was saddened by the fire and offering prayers for the injured, their families and emergency workers.
The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. In November 1996, 41 people died in a commercial building in Kowloon in a fire that lasted for around 20 hours.
