Hong Kong fire that engulfed apartments finally put out as death toll nears 130, search for victims continues

Hong Kong — The number of deaths from a Fire destroys residential complex in Hong Kong The death toll rose to 128 on Friday as more bodies were found in the blackened towers, authorities said. Security Secretary Chris Tang told reporters at the scene that the search for victims continues and the numbers could still rise.

The fire at the Wang Fuk Court Complex started on Wednesday afternoon and was not completely extinguished until Friday morning. Dozens of people, including firefighters, were injured in the fire.

Firefighters were still searching the high-rise complex apartment by apartment in a last-ditch attempt to find anyone alive after the massive blaze engulfed seven of the complex’s eight towers in one of the city’s deadliest fires ever recorded.

Crews were prioritizing apartments from which they had received more than two dozen calls for assistance during the fire, but which they could not reach due to the intensity of the fire, Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters early Friday morning.

“Our firefighting operation is almost finished,” he said.

The fire began mid-afternoon Wednesday in one of the Wang Fuk Court complex’s eight towers, quickly jumping from one to another as net-covered bamboo scaffolding on the site for renovations caught fire until seven buildings were engulfed.

It took more than 1,000 firefighters about 24 hours to bring the five-alarm fire under control, and nearly two days later, smoke was still billowing from the charred skeletons of the buildings due to occasional flare-ups.

The final search of the buildings was expected to be completed later on Friday, at which point officials said they would officially end the rescue phase of the operation at the complex in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China.

It was unclear how many people might be inside the buildings, which had nearly 2,000 apartments and about 4,800 residents. Hong Kong leader John Lee said early Thursday morning that officials had been unable to establish contact with 279 residents.

“We will endeavor to force entry into all units in the seven affected blocks to ensure there are no other potential victims,” ​​Chan said.

He said an updated figure on the number of people missing could not be calculated until the search and rescue operation was completed.

The apartments for which a total of 25 unanswered rescue calls were received, which are being prioritized, are primarily on the upper floors, where the fire was last extinguished, he said.

More than 70 people were injured in the fire, including 11 firefighters, and about 900 people were housed in temporary shelters.

Most of the casualties occurred in the first two buildings that caught fire, Chan said.

Arrested amid investigation into deadly fire

The apartment complex housed many seniors. It was built in the 1980s and had undergone a major renovation. Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency said on Thursday it was investigating possible corruption related to the renovation project.

Three men, the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, and police said company leaders were suspected of gross negligence.

Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but The News confirmed that Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations at the tower complex. Police confiscated boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered Thursday.

Authorities suspected that some materials in the exterior walls of high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, allowing the fire to spread unusually quickly. It was also reported Friday that fire alarm systems in at least some of the affected buildings may not have been working properly.

Police also said they found plastic foam panels, which are highly flammable, attached to the windows of each floor near the elevator lobby of the only tower that was not affected. The panels were believed to have been installed by the construction company, but the purpose was unclear.

Authorities planned immediate inspections of many housing developments undergoing major renovations to ensure scaffolding and construction materials met safety standards.

The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. A 1996 fire at a commercial building in Kowloon killed 41 people.