At Least 36 D£ad, Nearly 300 Missing As Massive F!re Engulfs Hong Kong High-Rise
At Least 36 Dead, Nearly 300 Missing As Massive Fire Engulfs Hong Kong High-Rise
Authorities said the blaze broke out at 2:51pm local time at the Wang Fuk Court complex, a development of eight towers built in the 1980s and home to about 4,800 residents, many of them elderly, Sky News reports.
At least 36 people have been killed and nearly 300 remain missing after a massive fire swept through a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Wednesday, making it one of the territory’s deadliest fires in decades.
Authorities said the blaze broke out at 2:51pm local time at the Wang Fuk Court complex, a development of eight towers built in the 1980s and home to about 4,800 residents, many of them elderly, Sky News reports.
The fire, fueled by bamboo scaffolding and construction netting used for ongoing renovation work, spread with alarming speed across multiple buildings.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee confirmed the rising death toll late Wednesday and said the government had mobilised extensive rescue resources.
“We are doing everything possible to locate the missing and support the affected families during this extremely difficult time,” Lee said.
He added that 29 people remained in hospital, some in serious condition.
The Fire Services Department raised the blaze to a level 5 alarm, the highest category in the city’s emergency system, as flames blasted out of windows and thick grey smoke blanketed the skyline.
Fire chiefs said crews faced extreme conditions. “High temperatures and strong winds made close-range operations very challenging,” a senior fire officer said.
“Our teams were battling not just flames, but collapsing scaffolding and rapidly shifting smoke.”
One firefighter died in the operation, and several others were injured.
Meanwhile, around 900 residents were evacuated to temporary shelters as rescue workers continued searching the blackened towers late into the night.
Ms. Lau, who escaped from the 22nd floor, described scenes of panic.
“The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see your own hands. People were shouting for help from their windows. We didn’t know if we would make it out,” she said.
Another resident, Mr. Chan, said the fire raced up the scaffolding “like a giant torch.”
“I grabbed my mother and we ran,” he said. “The stairwell was full of smoke, but staying put felt even more dangerous.”
The blaze is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1996, when 41 people were killed in a commercial building fire in Kowloon. That disaster led to landmark reforms in fire safety codes, regulations that may come under renewed scrutiny following Monday’s tragedy.
Bamboo scaffolding, still widely used across the city despite safety concerns, has long been a fixture of Hong Kong’s skyline. The government previously announced plans to phase it out on public projects.
As firefighters continued working to extinguish remaining hotspots, officials warned that the number of dead and missing could rise. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
