Hong Kong (TIP)- At least 94 people were killed and dozens injured in a massive fire that tore through a Hong Kong apartment complex on Wednesday, Nov 26, with some 280 still listed as missing.
Seven of the eight residential towers at Wang Fuk Court in the Tai Po district caught fire in the Chinese city’s deadliest blaze in almost 80 years, forcing nearly 900 of the 4,800 residents to stay in temporary shelters overnight.
Five more bodies, including of two children, were found on Friday after flames reignited in the early hours.
A unit of the complex burst into flames again at around 5am local time with fire tongues visible through windows, accompanied by heavy smoke, The Standard reported. The fire services department said the death toll had risen to 94 while 76 people were undergoing treatment for various injuries, including 11 firefighters.
Firefighters had mostly contained the fire by Thursday, Nov 27, evening and rescue workers were scouring the complex’s smouldering remains for survivors.
“Hope they can find more survivors. I think they have tried their best. The firefighters have done a lot,” resident Jacky Kwok said. “It’s a terrible disaster that no one wanted to happen.”
Rescuers battled intense heat, thick smoke and collapsing scaffolding and debris as they fought to reach residents feared trapped on the upper floors of the complex.
The blaze was expected to be extinguished by Friday evening, fire services deputy director Derek Armstrong Chan said, adding that firefighters had located multiple survivors in the destroyed buildings.
Most of the victims were found in two towers of the complex, the deputy director said.
As many as 279 people were listed as missing on Thursday and that figure was yet to be updated.
Chan said 25 calls for help to the fire services remained unresolved, including three in recent hours, which would be prioritised.
A distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said were housing the nearly 900 displaced residents.
“She and her father are still not out,” said the woman, who gave only her surname, Ng, as she sobbed. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”
The fire has put a spotlight on the use of bamboo scaffolding in the city, a decades-long practice, after bamboo lattices came crashing down in flames.
Police said that “the building’s exterior walls had protective nets, membranes, waterproof tarpaulins, and plastic sheets suspected of not meeting fire safety standards”.
The blaze started on the external scaffolding of a 32-storey tower, engulfed its bamboo scaffolding and construction netting, moved inside the building, and eventually leapt to nearby high-rises, likely aided by windy conditions.
In the wake of the fire, police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, which was contracted to perform maintenance on the building, on suspicion of manslaughter.
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