Hong Kong fire: At least 55 are dead as blaze burns on after 24 hours
By John Mair, Kay Johnson and Karishma Singh
- Fire engulfs residential towers in Hong Kong
- 55 people have died and nearly 300 are missing
- Some residents still trapped in buildings
- Three from construction company arrested
- The suspects are held on suspicion of manslaughter
- Wang Fuk complex includes 2,000 apartments and over 4,600 people
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A huge fire is still burning in a Hong Kong apartment complex, killing at least 55 people and leaving nearly 300 missing.
The fire may have been caused by a “grossly negligent” construction firm using unsafe materials, police said on Thursday.
The fire was still burning on Thursday afternoon, more than 24 hours after it started.
The flames at the last four towers on fire have been declared under control, and fires at three other tower fires have been extinguished. Firefighters are still working at the scene.
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? asked a 51-year-old resident with the surname Wan.
“There’s nothing left. What are we supposed to do?”
The death toll is now the highest in a Hong Kong fire since 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse blaze.
The last four tower fires are now under control
Authorities have said fires at four of the seven blocks that were burning have been extinguished, while the other three blocks are under control.
The fire services department said it has deployed 304 fire engines and rescue vehicles and more than 1,200 firefighters.
Shares drop for insurance provider
Shares in China Taiping Insurance Holdings, which provides coverage for Wang Fuk Court, dropped as much as 8% on Thursday on concerns about its potential liability exposure.
According to publicly available minutes of meetings of registered owners of the apartment complex, members approved the continuation of insurance coverage with China Taiping Insurance (Hong Kong) Ltd in December 2024.
The policy period runs from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 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.
The insurers have a $257 million building fire and property policy in place and also provide the estate with $40.6 million of contractors’ all-risks (CAR) cover for its ongoing facade-repair programme, as well as $25.7 million in employee compensation cover for on-site contractors and subcontractors.
Hong Kong’s corruption body launches probe into fire
Death toll has risen to 55, authorities say
The fire has been burning for more than 24 hours
The Fire Services department first received reports of the blaze at 2.51 p.m. (0651 GMT) on Wednesday.
2 hours ago
14:51 +08
Two Indonesian domestic workers among the dead
Indonesia’s foreign ministry says two Indonesian workers “in the domestic sector” have died in the fire and two others have been injured.
Figures from Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat show that in 2024, there were 368,000 foreign domestic helpers in the territory, with 55% coming from the Philippines.
Indonesians made up 42% of the workers, with the remainder coming from other places in South and Southeast Asia.
3 hours ago
Police raid construction company, local media report
Earlier today, police announced the arrest of two directors and an engineering consultant from the construction company doing maintenance at the building.
Police officers searched the company’s office on Thursday morning, seizing documents that mention Wang Fuk Court, local media reported. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police said in addition to the buildings being covered with protective mesh sheets and plastic that may not meet fire standards, they discovered some windows on one unaffected building were sealed with a foam material, installed by the construction company carrying out year-long maintenance work.
3 hours ago
Pet rescuers join the search
Volunteers and animal welfare agencies have swung into action to try to rescue pets caught up in the fire.
Teams with oxygenated pet carriers and animal ambulances were searching for pets near the still-burning complex, with some negotiating with police to allow them through cordons keeping out the public.
Anson Cheng, from animal welfare group Hong Kong Guardians, said that as of Thursday morning at least 10 cats, seven dogs and several turtles had been rescued.
“Pet owners contacted our alliance and we compiled a list of more than 100 cases,” Cheng said.
5 hours ago
‘We stand with you,’ Grenfell group says
A group of survivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell fire have posted a message addressed to those affected in Hong Kong.
China Red Cross, companies donate for relief
The Chinese Red Cross has announced 2 million yuan ($280,000) in funds to support rescue and relief.
On the corporate side, Anta Group is donating HK$30 million ($3.9 million) in cash and equipment, and Xiaomi and Tencent have each donated HK$10 million.
6 hours ago
People search shelters for loved ones
Some 900 people from the housing complex are in shelters. A woman surnamed Ng, 52, was distraught as she looked for her daughter outside a shelter.
Carrying her daughter’s graduation photo, she sobbed “She and her father are still not out yet. They didn’t have water to save our building.”
She said her block’s fire had started small but was still burning.
“The fire was getting more and more severe, they should have saved the small fire first. Now everything is burning. So many people have died.”
‘We just have to face reality’
A firefighter is among the 44 killed, with 45 people hospitalised in critical condition, Hong Kong police told a press conference before dawn on Thursday.
Some 279 people were uncontactable and 900 were in eight shelters, Hong Kong leader John Lee told reporters earlier.
“We don’t know what to do,” said a long-time resident, a 70-year-old woman surnamed Chu, who came back to see her home still burning after staying over at a friend’s place on Thursday night.
“It’s not like we can really move anywhere … we just have to face reality,” said Y.Y. Chan, a 68-year-old resident waiting outside the development on Wednesday, said even though the fire in his block had been extinguished.
7 hours ago
Fire recalls London’s Grenfell
The fire in Hong Kong has prompted comparisons to the Grenfell Tower inferno that killed 72 people in London in June 2017.
The Grenfell fire was London’s deadliest since World War Two, and the blaze at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk complex is already the deadliest in more than 50 years.
Last year, a public inquiry into the fire at a 23-storey social housing block in one of London’s richest areas put the blame for the disaster on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
The Grenfell blaze was started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator in a fourth-floor apartment, an earlier inquiry concluded.
With the fire still burning in Hong Kong, it’s still too early to know exactly what caused that blaze.
