Hong Kong authorities said on Friday the death toll from the city’s worst fire in decades had risen to at least 83, as firefighters scoured torched high-rise buildings for scores of people still listed as missing.
Flames were still visible in some of the eight-building apartment complex’s almost 2,000 units well over 24 hours after the fire broke out, with crews still spraying water over the blackened exteriors.
Authorities have begun investigating what sparked the disastrous blaze – the financial hub’s worst in almost 80 years – including the presence of bamboo scaffolding and plastic mesh wrapped around the structures as part of a housing estate-wide renovation.
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body said it has launched a probe into renovation work at the housing complex, hours after police said they had arrested three men on suspicion of negligently leaving foam packaging at the fire site.
The complex, comprising eight closely built blocks with around 2,000 flats, is home to over 4,600 residents in a city already grappling with severe shortages of affordable homes.
Authorities said the flames in four of the eight blocks had been fully put out, while fires in three other buildings were under control. One block remained untouched by the blaze.
A distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said house 900 residents.
“She and her father are still not out yet,” sobbed the 52-year-old, who gave only her surname, Ng. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”
On Thursday, police officers searched the building maintenance company responsible for the housing estate, seizing documents that mentioned it, media said. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” said police superintendent Eileen Chung.
Video images from the scene showed flames leaping from at least two of the 32-storey towers sheathed in green construction mesh and bamboo scaffolding.
Authorities said they had doused the flames in four of seven affected blocks, with those in the rest brought under control.
“We bought in this building more than 20 years ago,” said a 51-year-old resident surnamed Wan. “All of our belongings were in this building, and now that it has all burned like this, what’s left?”
Dozens in hospital
Another displaced resident, Wong Sik-kam, recalled how his son was one of the firefighters dispatched to the scene.
“My son called me and told me about the fire… I thought it was just a normal fire, like a kitchen accident that would be put out. Who knew it would get so bad?” Wong said.
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 61 people were being treated in hospital. Fifteen were in a critical condition, 27 in a serious condition and 19 were stable.
City leader 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. Authorities have not updated the figure since.
Lee said more than 900 people sought refuge at temporary shelters overnight.
The Indonesian consulate said around noon that two of the deceased were Indonesians working as migrant domestic workers.
A distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said house 900 residents.
“She and her father are still not out yet,” sobbed the 52-year-old, who gave only her surname, Ng. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”
On Thursday, police officers searched the building maintenance company responsible for the housing estate, seizing documents that mentioned it, media said. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” said police superintendent Eileen Chung.
Video images from the scene showed flames leaping from at least two of the 32-storey towers sheathed in green construction mesh and bamboo scaffolding.
Authorities said they had doused the flames in four of seven affected blocks, with those in the rest brought under control.
“We bought in this building more than 20 years ago,” said a 51-year-old resident surnamed Wan. “All of our belongings were in this building, and now that it has all burned like this, what’s left?”
Three arrested
Police said in addition to the protective mesh and plastic coverings of the buildings, which may fall short of fire standards, they found foam material sealing some windows on one unaffected building, and installed by a construction company engaged in year-long maintenance work.
Police have arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of the company on suspicion of manslaughter over the fire, Chung added.
The estate has been under renovation for a year at a cost of HK$330 million ($42 million), with each unit contributing between HK$160,000 and HK$180,000, media said.
Hong Kong’s corruption body said it had launched an investigation into suspected graft related to the renovation.
A firefighter was among the dead, while dozens in hospital were in critical condition, authorities said on Thursday. About 279 people have yet to be traced.
Two Indonesian migrant workers “in the domestic sector” died in the fire and two others were injured, the Southeast Asian nation’s foreign ministry said.
The death toll is now the highest in a Hong Kong fire since 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse blaze.
More than 1,200 firefighters are battling to control the flames, along with 304 fire engines and rescue vehicles.
“The priority is to extinguish the fire and rescue the residents who are trapped,” city leader John Lee told reporters, adding that support for the injured and recovery efforts would follow before a thorough investigation was launched.
With inputs from agencies
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