Hong Kong fire latest: rescue crews search for survivors after 55 killed and hundreds reported missing
Hong Kong authorities say death toll has now risen to 55
Hong Kong authorities have said the death toll has now risen to 55, with a further 72 injured, in the apartment complex fire.
Almost a full day after the fire began, firefighters were struggling to reach residents potentially trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex due to intense heat and thick smoke from the fire that erupted on Wednesday afternoon.
Key events
Police officers have searched the building maintenance company responsible for the housing estate, seizing documents that mentioned it, media said.
The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” said police superintendent Eileen Chung.
Video images from the scene showed flames leaping from at least two of the 32-storey towers sheathed in green construction mesh and bamboo scaffolding.
Authorities said they had doused the flames in four of seven affected blocks, with those in the rest brought under control.
Smoke and flames rise as a major fire engulfs several residential buildings at Wang Fuk Court on in Hong Kong.
The tightly packed complex in the northern Tai Po district has 2,000 apartments in eight blocks that are home to more than 4,600 people in a city struggling with chronic shortages of affordable housing.
“We bought in this building more than 20 years ago. All of our belongings were in this building, and now that it has all burned like this, what’s left?” a 51-year-old resident, with the surname Wan, told Reuters.
“There’s nothing left. What are we supposed to do?”
A woman surnamed Ng, 52, was distraught as she searched for her daughter outside a shelter.
“She and her father are still not out yet. They didn’t have water to save our building,” she sobbed, carrying her daughter’s graduation photo.
Video from the scene showed flames leaping from at least two of the 32-storey towers sheathed in green construction mesh and bamboo scaffolding.
Hong Kong authorities say death toll has now risen to 55
Hong Kong authorities have said the death toll has now risen to 55, with a further 72 injured, in the apartment complex fire.
Almost a full day after the fire began, firefighters were struggling to reach residents potentially trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex due to intense heat and thick smoke from the fire that erupted on Wednesday afternoon.
Summary
It’s 3pm in Hong Kong and in case you’re just joining us here’s a recap of the latest news on the devastating blaze at a residential block that has killed at least 44 people and left almost 300 missing.
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Firefighters were continuing to battle to reach residents who may be trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex on Thursday due to the intense heat and thick smoke from the fire.
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The death toll had reached 44, with 45 people in hospital in critical condition, authorities said on Thursday, making it the deadliest Hong Kong fire in decades. Hong Kong chief executive John Lee said some 279 people were uncontactable and 900 were in eight shelters.
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Police alleged that unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used during maintenance work may have been behind the rapid spread of the fire that erupted on Wednesday at a group of residential tower blocks in the city’s Tai Po district.
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The blaze looked to have largely burned out by Thursday afternoon. Authorities said earlier they had brought it under control in four blocks and operations were continuing in three.
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A taskforce has been set up to investigate the cause of the blaze. Eileen Chung, a Hong Kong police superintendent, alleged on Thursday: “We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties.”
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Three men from the construction company – two directors and one engineering consultant – had been arrested, Chung said, without giving further details.
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The fire is thought to have spread on bamboo scaffolding around the building and was likely aided by windy conditions. Police alleged the buildings were covered with protective mesh sheets and plastic that may not meet fire standards, and discovered some windows on one unaffected building were sealed with a foam material. The housing site – made up of eight 31-storey towers containing about 2,000 flats – was undergoing renovation work at the time of the fire.
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China’s leader Xi Jinping urged an “all-out effort” to extinguish the fire and to minimise casualties and losses, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said, as residents voiced anger online at the blaze’s possible causes.
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Several forums and campaign events related to 7 December elections that had been scheduled for the coming days have been cancelled.
Shares in China Taiping Insurance Holdings dropped as much as 8% on Thursday on concerns about its potential liability exposure to the fire-hit apartment complex.
According to publicly available minutes of meetings of registered owners of Wang Fuk Court, members approved the continuation of insurance coverage for the housing complex with China Taiping Insurance (Hong Kong) Ltd in December last year, Reuters is reporting.
The policy period runs from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026, the records show.
China Taiping Insurance Holdings and its unit China Taiping Insurance (Hong Kong) did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Hong Kong to inspect all under-repair housing estates – leader
Hong Kong authorities will immediately inspect all housing estates undergoing major works after the deadly fire that ripped through the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex, says the city’s leader.
John Lee said in a Facebook post quoted by AFP on Thursday:
The government has immediately arranged for inspections of all housing estates across the city undergoing major repairs, to examine the safety of scaffolding and building materials.
Firefighters have been continuing to battle to reach residents who may be trapped on the upper floors of the Hong Kong housing complex due to the intense heat and thick smoke generated by the fire.
As our new full report on the disaster details, authorities say the death toll remains at 44, with 45 people in hospital in critical condition, making it the deadliest Hong Kong fire in decades.
By Thursday afternoon the fire appeared to have largely burned out. Earlier, authorities said they had brought the fire in four blocks under control and operations were continuing in three blocks.
The blaze has prompted comparisons to the Grenfell Tower inferno that killed 72 people in London in 2017. That fire was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
The Grenfell United survivors’ group posted on X on Thursday:
Our hearts go out to all those affected by the horrific fire in Hong Kong. To the families, friends and communities, we stand with you. You are not alone.
You can see our full report from Helen Davidson and agencies here:
Hong Kong’s leader has said the city will inspect housing estates that are under repair in the aftermath of the fire, AFP is reporting.
We’ll bring you more on this soon.
Major donations to help with relief efforts after the Hong Kong fire are continuing to come in.
The latest include the Jack Ma Foundation pledging $HK30m ($3.9m) for aid to people affected and Chinese sportswear company 361 Degrees announcing $HK15m ($1.9m) in cash and supplies for the recovery.
TikTok owner ByteDance says it is donating $HK10m and Fuguiniao Group has pledged $HK15m in cash and equipment, Reuters is reporting.
As firefighters battled to find survivors in the flaming apartment complex overnight, another band of volunteers swung into action – to rescue the estate’s pets.
Reuters reports that dozens of workers from Hong Kong’s animal welfare agencies turned out with oxygenated pet carriers and animal ambulances to search for pets as media posts depicted elderly people weeping for animals they left behind in the rush to save human lives.
Some animal welfare workers carrying cages negotiated with police to allow them through cordons keeping out the public as fire raged in the complex on Thursday.
“Pet owners contacted our alliance and we compiled a list of more than 100 cases,” said Anson Cheng of the animal welfare group Hong Kong Guardians.
We shared the cases with firefighters so that they can help check the flats and pick up the pets if they see them.
Cheng said that as of Thursday morning, at least 10 cats, seven dogs and several turtles had been rescued.
Hong Kong’s system of micro-chipping dogs and cats meant it was possible that some survivors could be reunited with pets that escaped the blaze, he said.
More comments are emerging from people affected by the blaze as authorities continues operations in three of the four apartment blocks.
A woman surnamed Ng, 52, was distraught as she looked for her daughter outside a shelter.
“She and her father are still not out yet. They didn’t have water to save our building,” she said, sobbing and carrying her daughter’s graduation photo.
A long-time resident surnamed Chu said she still had not been able to contact her friends who lived in the next block. After staying at a friend’s place on Wednesday night, the 70-year-old woman came back to see her home still burning.
“We don’t know what to do,” she said.
Reuters also reports that an online app showed missing persons reports submitted through a linked Google document that detailed residents of individual towers and rooms.
It includes descriptions such as “Mother-in-law in her 70s, missing” or “one boy and one girl” or “Rooftop: 33-year-old male”. One description simply says “27th floor, room 1: He is dead”.
The news agency could not independently verify the information on the app.
