Death toll rises as rescuers use torches to comb burnt-out Tai Po towers

“He and his father haven’t come out yet,” said the 52-year-old man, who gave only his surname Ng, as he cried. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”

Local resident Lawrence Lee was waiting for news about his wife, who he believed was still trapped in the apartment.

“When the fire started, I told him on the phone to run away. But when he left the apartment, the corridor and stairs were filled with smoke and everything was dark, so he had no choice but to go back to the apartment,” he said while waiting in one of the shelters overnight.

Lau Yu Hung, a 78-year-old retiree, said: New York Times When he looked out the window by chance, he saw flames rising in the building next door.

He and his wife barely escaped from their 19th-floor apartment in time. “Nobody warned us,” he said. “The alarm did not go off. We escaped on our own.”

Firefighters have been trying to control the flames since Wednesday afternoon, when the blaze is believed to have started in bamboo scaffolding and construction netting and then spread to seven of the complex’s eight buildings. Fires in four buildings were effectively extinguished and the remaining three towers were under control, officials said Thursday afternoon.

Hong Kong police arrested the bosses of a construction company on Thursday on suspicion of manslaughter over the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years.

Police arrested two managers and an engineering consultant from Prestige Construction, a company contracted to maintain the buildings. Police said those arrested were suspected of manslaughter for using unsafe materials.

“We have reason to believe that the responsible parties of the company committed gross negligence that led to this accident, causing the fire to spread uncontrollably and causing huge losses,” police chief Eileen Chung said.

Prestige did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

The government added that police seized tender documents, a list of employees, 14 computers and three mobile phones during a raid on the company’s office.

The confirmed death toll in Hong Kong rose to 83 as of midnight on Thursday, South China Morning Post reported, citing the fire department. It was the deadliest fire since 1948, when a warehouse fire in Hong Kong killed 176 people.

The Fire Marshal’s Office said more than 70 people were injured, including 11 firefighters.

It is unknown how many people are still missing. The government said early Thursday that 279 people were listed as missing but that figure had not been updated for 24 hours.

In his telegram to Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-Yan, bishop of Hong Kong, Pope Leo sent “spiritual solidarity to all who are suffering from the effects of this disaster, especially the injured and suffering families.”

Hong Kong leader John Lee said the government would create a HK$300 million ($39 million) fund to help residents, while automakers Xiaomi, Xpeng and Geely, as well as Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Tencent’s charitable foundation, also announced donations.

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On the second night after the fire, dozens of evacuees set up mattresses at a nearby shopping mall, with many saying official evacuation centers should be reserved for those in greater need.

From elderly residents to schoolchildren, people wrapped themselves in quilts and sheltered in tents outside a McDonald’s restaurant and convenience stores, with a steady stream of volunteers handing out snacks and toiletries.

Eight blocks of the cramped complex of 2,000 flats were home to more than 4,600 people in the financial hub struggling to overcome a chronic shortage of affordable housing.

Police also said they found foam material covering windows in an unaffected building during a yearlong maintenance effort.

The city’s development bureau discussed gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.

Reuters, AP

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