Hong Kong high-rise fire kills at least 55, 250-plus missing: fire dept

HONG KONG: The death toll from a huge blaze that ripped through a Hong Kong housing estate rose to 55, the city's fire department said on Thursday afternoon.

Fire service officials told a news conference that 51 died at the scene, while four died in hospital.

They added that blazes in four of the eight apartment blocks in the estate had been extinguished and that three fires were under control. One building was not affected.

The inferno — the financial hub's worst in decades — took hold on Wednesday afternoon in an eight-building housing estate with 2,000 apartments, sending shockwaves through the city, which has some of the world's most densely populated and tallest residential blocks.

Police said early on Thursday they arrested three men in connection with the fire, after flammable materials left during maintenance work caused the blaze "to spread rapidly beyond control."

Officers searched premises in a separate neighborhood on Thursday morning, taking away documents in binders in relation to the three people arrested, who police suspect "acted with gross negligence" by leaving foam packaging at the site of the fire.

AFP journalists at the scene just after daybreak on Thursday saw some flats still burning, although the blaze had noticeably dimmed during the early hours of the morning.

Intense flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several 31-storey apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court on Wednesday in the northern district of Tai Po, which was undergoing estate-wide repairs.

An AFP reporter heard loud cracking sounds, possibly from the burning bamboo, and saw thick plumes of smoke billowing from the buildings as flames and ash reached high into the sky.

A 65-year-old resident surnamed Yuen said he had lived in the complex for more than four decades and that many of his neighbours were elderly and might not be mobile.

"The windows were closed because of the maintenance, (some people) didn't know there was a fire and had to be told to evacuate via phone calls by neighbours," Yuen told AFP. "I'm devastated."

Hong Kong's fire department raised the death toll to 44 on Thursday morning.

Among the dead was a 37-year-old firefighter, who was found with burns on his face half an hour after losing contact with colleagues, according to the fire service director Andy Yeung.

A government spokesman told AFP that 56 people were being treated in hospital. Sixteen were in a critical condition, 24 were in a serious condition, and 16 were stable.

City leader John Lee said in the early hours of Thursday that 279 were unaccounted for, though firefighters said later that they had established contact with some of those people.

Lee said more than 900 people sought refuge at temporary shelters.

'Unable to reach people who requested help' 

Authorities said they will launch a probe into the fire and into the materials on the buildings' exteriors that may have caused the blaze to spread faster than usual.

A police officer at a temporary shelter told AFP it was unclear how many people were unaccounted for because residents were still trickling in late into the night to report missing family members.

Sections of charred scaffolding fell from the burning blocks, and flames could be seen inside apartments, sometimes belching out through windows into the night sky, casting an eerie orange glow on surrounding buildings.

"The temperature at the scene is very high, and there are some floors where we have been unable to reach people who requested help, but we will keep trying," said Derek Armstrong Chan, the deputy director of fire service operations.

He said the fire likely spread from one building to another due to the wind and drifting debris, although he added that authorities are investigating the cause of the blaze.

Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the victims, including "the firefighter who died in the line of duty," according to state media.

"He offered sympathies to the families of the victims and those affected by the disaster, and called for making every effort to extinguish the fire and minimise casualties and losses," state broadcaster CCTV said.

Lee, the city leader, said he was "deeply saddened" and that all government departments were assisting residents affected by the fire.

'Dare not leave' 

A Tai Po resident surnamed So, 57, said the fire was "heartbreaking."

"There's nothing that can be done about the property. We can only hope that everyone, no matter old or young, can return safely," So told AFP.

An apartment owner in his 40s who did not want to give his name told AFP that the government needed to help those made homeless by the blaze.

"The fire is not yet under control, and I dare not leave, and I don't know what I can do," he said.

Residents were seen being evacuated via large coaches, with local media reporting that adjacent blocks were also being cleared.

Sections of a nearby highway were also closed by the firefighting operation.

Deadly fires were once a regular scourge in densely populated Hong Kong, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

However, safety measures have been ramped up in recent decades, and such fires are now much less common.