Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in nearly 30 years raged through the night, killing at least 44 people and leaving 279 others unaccounted for as firefighters continued pulling residents from burning towers into Thursday morning. The massive fire broke out Wednesday afternoon at Wang Fuk Court, a residential complex in the Tai Po district, and rapidly spread across seven of its eight high-rise buildings.
Police have arrested three men — the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction firm — on suspicion of manslaughter. Authorities say highly flammable Styrofoam insulation was found outside the windows of every floor of the one unaffected tower, raising serious concerns about gross negligence in the building’s renovation. Fire officials also believe some exterior wall materials failed to meet fire resistance standards, contributing to the unusually fast spread of the flames.
The blaze began on bamboo scaffolding wrapped around a 32-storey tower and, fueled by strong winds, quickly leapt from one building to the next. Forty of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and at least 62 other residents were hospitalized with burn and smoke-inhalation injuries. A 37-year-old firefighter was among the dead, while another was treated for heat exhaustion.
With temperatures inside the buildings soaring and debris raining down from the upper floors, rescue teams struggled to fight their way in. “It’s difficult for us to enter the building and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Service operations. The fire was upgraded to a level-5 alarm — Hong Kong’s highest — as night descended, and authorities deployed more than 200 fire trucks and around 100 ambulances. About 900 residents have been moved into temporary shelters.
The Wang Fuk Court complex, built in the 1980s, contains nearly 2,000 apartments and houses roughly 4,800 people, many of them seniors. It had recently been undergoing major renovation work when the disaster struck. Evacuated residents described scenes of helplessness as they watched their homes burn. “I’ve given up thinking about my property,” one woman, surnamed Wu, told local media. “Watching it burn like that was really frustrating.”
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the tragedy has forced the government to suspend public outreach efforts for the upcoming Dec. 7 Legislative Council elections as officials focus fully on the disaster response. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also expressed condolences and urged authorities to minimize further casualties.
Bamboo scaffolding — widely used throughout Hong Kong for construction and repairs — is now under renewed scrutiny. The government announced earlier this year that it would begin phasing out bamboo structures in public projects due to safety concerns.
The scale of the disaster recalls the 1996 Garley Building fire in Kowloon, which killed 41 people. If the number of missing residents remains high, the Tai Po blaze could become the deadliest in the city’s modern history.