Hong Kong fire death toll rises to 94 after deadly blaze | World | News
The death toll in the deadliest fires in Hong Kong’s modern history, where firefighters struggled for the second day to extinguish the blaze, rose to 94.
Rescuers armed with flashlights walked from apartment to apartment in the charred towers as heavy smoke billowed from some windows of the Wang Fuk Court complex, a dense cluster of buildings housing thousands of people in the Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s mainland border.
Firefighters are still working on several apartments and trying to enter all units in the seven towers to ensure there are no more casualties, the AP reported.
“Our firefighting operation is nearly complete,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Services Operations. He added that firefighters were “working hard to prevent debris and embers from igniting. Next up is a search and rescue operation.”
It is unclear how many people are missing or stranded at this time. Hong Kong leader John Lee said contact was lost with 279 people in the early hours of Thursday, November 27.
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.
Chan said the fire spread through the towers “extraordinarily quickly” and emergency workers had difficulty getting inside.
“Rubble and scaffolding were falling from the upper floors,” he told reporters. “There are other reasons as well, such as high temperature, darkness… (and) access to emergency vehicles was blocked by fallen scaffolding and debris, making it very difficult for us to access the building.”
The Fire Marshal’s Office said more than 70 people, including 11 firefighters, were injured and 94 people died. Approximately 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters overnight.
Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram to the bishop of Hong Kong on Thursday, expressing his sorrow for the fire and praying for the injured, their families and emergency workers.
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.
Winter and Sandy Chung, who live in one of the towers, said they saw sparks flying around as they were being evacuated Wednesday afternoon. Even though they were safe, they were worried about their homes. “I couldn’t sleep all night,” Winter Chung, 75, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Three people, managers of a construction company and an engineering consultant, were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter. Police did not directly name the company they worked for.
“We have reason to believe that those responsible for the construction company were grossly negligent,” senior police chief Eileen Chung said.
On Thursday, police also searched the office of Prestige Construction and Engineering Company, which the AP confirmed was responsible for renovations at the tower complex. According to local media reports, police seized the documents in the boxes as evidence. Prestige’s phones rang unanswered.
Authorities suspected that some materials on the exterior walls of high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, causing the fire to spread unusually quickly.
The residential complex consisted of eight buildings with approximately 2,000 apartments for approximately 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. It was built in the 1980s and is undergoing major renovations. Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into possible corruption related to the renovation project.
The fire started in the exterior scaffolding of a 32-story tower, then spread through bamboo scaffolding and construction netting, spreading inside the building and then to other buildings, possibly aided by windy conditions, officials said.
While bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in building construction and renovation projects in Hong Kong, Lee said officials will meet with industry representatives to discuss switching to metal scaffolding due to safety concerns.
Chief Administrative Secretary Eric Chan said, “Although we know that bamboo scaffolding has a long history in Hong Kong, its flame retardancy is inferior to that of metal scaffolding. For safety reasons, the government believes that there should be a complete switch to metal scaffolding in suitable working environments.”
Authorities will also carry out urgent inspections of all housing estates undergoing major renovations to ensure scaffolding and construction materials meet safety standards.
The fire was the deadliest fire in Hong Kong in decades. In November 1996, 41 people lost their lives in a fire that lasted approximately 20 hours in a commercial building in Kowloon.
