At least 94 killed in Hong Kong fire as authorities continue to search for hundreds missing

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Hong Kong’s worst fire in memory was still smouldering in several apartment towers late on Thursday and into Friday morning as firefighters struggled to rescue dozens of people who remain unaccounted for.

At least 94 people have died after a massive fire broke out on Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court in Taipo, a suburb in the city’s mountainous New Territories.

Dozens more were injured, and about 900 of the 4,800 residents were evacuated to temporary shelters overnight.

Rescuers holding flashlights were going from apartment to apartment at the charred towers as thick smoke poured out from some windows at the Wang Fuk Court complex, a dense cluster of buildings housing thousands of people in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s border with the mainland.

Officials said firefighters were still working on a handful of apartments and trying to enter all of the units in the seven towers to ensure there were no further casualties.

“Our firefighting operation is almost complete,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Services Operations. Firefighters were working hard “to prevent the debris and embers from flaring up. What’s next is the search and rescue operation,” he added.

It was unclear how many people remained missing or trapped. Hong Kong leader John Lee said contact had been lost with 279 people early on Thursday. Authorities have not provided updates on the missing or trapped people since.

Seven of the eight 32-story towers in the building complex were engulfed in flames after construction materials and bamboo scaffolding caught fire. Officials said that extreme heat was hampering rescue efforts.

Officials are investigating why construction materials, netting and bamboo scaffolding being used in renovations to the outsides of the high-rise buildings caught fire.

Three people were arrested by authorities in the meantime in connection with the incident; the directors of the project and an engineering consultant of a construction company, and are being investigated for manslaughter.

Police did not name the company, but they searched the office of Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., which The Associated Press confirmed was in charge of the renovations.

Officials said they suspect that some materials, such as plastic foam panels being used to protect windows from damage, did not meet fire resistance standards. High winds also aided in the unusually quick spread of the flames.

About a third of Hong Kong residents live in the government’s Housing Authority dwellings. Wang Fuk Court is a complex of privately-owned but subsidised housing.

It was built in the 1980s, the basic apartments measure 40-45 square metres, according to online real estate listings.

Like most Hong Kong mass market housing, they appear to not be equipped with smoke detectors, sprinkler systems or other fire safety systems. The buildings were constructed before revisions to Hong Kong’s fire codes required mandatory fire refuge floors.

The fire is the deadliest to hit Hong Kong in decades. The last major deadly blaze came in November 1996, where 41 people died in a commercial building in Kowloon in a blaze that lasted for around 20 hours.

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