Smoke rises from residential buildings as fires proceed to burn at Wang Fuk Court docket within the Tai Po district of Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025.
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An enormous fireplace nonetheless burning in a Hong Kong house complicated that has killed at the least 44 folks and left virtually 300 lacking could have been unfold by unsafe scaffolding and foam supplies used throughout upkeep work, police mentioned on Thursday.
Working by means of the night time, firefighters have been struggling to succeed in residents probably trapped on the higher flooring of the Wang Fuk Court docket housing complicated resulting from intense warmth and thick smoke from the hearth that erupted on Wednesday afternoon.
The tightly packed complicated within the northern Tai Po district has 2,000 flats in eight blocks, housing greater than 4,600 folks.
By Thursday morning, authorities mentioned they’d introduced the hearth in 4 blocks underneath management, with operations persevering with in three blocks.
Video from the scene confirmed flames nonetheless leaping from at the least two of the 32-storey towers sheathed in bamboo scaffolding and inexperienced building mesh, as heavy smoke billowed into the sky.
Thick smoke and flames rise as a significant fireplace engulfs a number of house blocks on the Wang Fuk Court docket residential property in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Nov. 26, 2025.
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Police mentioned along with the buildings being coated with protecting mesh sheets and plastic that will not meet fireplace requirements, they found some home windows on one unaffected constructing have been sealed with a foam materials, put in by a building firm finishing up upkeep work.
“We’ve cause to imagine that the corporate’s accountable events have been grossly negligent, which led to this accident and brought about the hearth to unfold uncontrollably, leading to main casualties,” Eileen Chung, a Hong Kong police superintendent, mentioned.
Three males from the development firm, two administrators and one engineering marketing consultant, had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over the hearth, she added.
The inexperienced building mesh and bamboo scaffolding used on the buildings are a mainstay of conventional Chinese language structure however have been topic to a phase-out in Hong Kong since March for security causes.
This image taken in Hong Kong on March 9, 2023 reveals a scaffolder developing bamboo scaffolding round a neon signal.
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A firefighter was among the many 44 killed, with 45 folks in hospital in essential situation, Hong Kong police informed a press convention earlier than daybreak on Thursday.
The dying toll is now the best in a Hong Kong fireplace since World Battle Two, surpassing the 41 killed in a blaze in a industrial constructing within the Kowloon district in November 1996.
The most recent fireplace has prompted comparisons to the Grenfell Tower inferno that killed 72 folks in London in 2017. That fireside was blamed on companies becoming the outside with flammable cladding, in addition to failings by the federal government and the development business.
Important provides are piled outdoors a brief shelter close to the Wang Fuk Court docket residential property in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Nov. 26, 2025.
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“The precedence is to extinguish the hearth and rescue the residents who’re trapped,” Hong Kong chief John Lee informed reporters earlier. “The second is to assist the injured. The third is to assist and get better. Then, we’ll launch an intensive investigation.”
Some 279 folks have been uncontactable and 900 have been in eight shelters, he added.
One 71-year-old resident surnamed Wong broke down in tears, saying his spouse was trapped inside.
Harry Cheung, 66, who has lived at Block Two in one of many complexes for greater than 40 years, mentioned he heard a loud noise about 2:45 p.m. (0645 GMT) and noticed fireplace erupt in a close-by block.
An house nonetheless burns as a significant fireplace swept by means of a number of house blocks on the Wang Fuk Court docket residential property in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Nov. 27, 2025.
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“I instantly went again to pack up my issues,” he mentioned.
“I do not even understand how I really feel proper now. I am simply interested by the place I will sleep tonight.”
One other long-time resident, a lady surnamed Chu, mentioned she nonetheless had not been capable of contact her buddies who stay within the subsequent block. After staying over at a good friend’s place on Thursday night time, the 70-year-old got here again to see her house nonetheless burning.
“We do not know what to do,” she mentioned.
China’s Xi urges ‘all-out’ effort towards fireplace
Many residents took to social media to criticise what they noticed as negligence and cost-cutting as a reason behind the hearth. One video confirmed a number of building staff smoking on the bamboo scaffolding surrounding one of many complicated’s blocks in the course of the renovation course of.
From the mainland, China’s President Xi Jinping urged an “all-out effort” to extinguish the hearth and to minimise casualties and losses, China’s state broadcaster CCTV mentioned.
Hong Kong’s Transport Division mentioned that various roads would stay closed within the space on Thursday morning and 39 bus routes have been diverted.
A minimum of six faculties shall be closed on Thursday because of the fireplace and site visitors congestion, the town’s Training Bureau mentioned.
On Wednesday, frames of scaffolding have been seen tumbling to the bottom as firefighters battled the blaze, whereas scores of fireside engines and ambulances lined the street beneath the event.
Hong Kong’s authorities moved to begin phasing out bamboo scaffolding in March, citing employee security after 22 deaths involving bamboo scaffolders between 2019 and 2024. It introduced that fifty% of public building works can be required to make use of metallic frames as a substitute.
Although fireplace hazard was not cited as a cause for the phase-out, there have been at the least three fires involving bamboo scaffolding this yr, in accordance with the Affiliation for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s sky-high property costs have lengthy been a set off for social discontent within the metropolis and the hearth tragedy may additional stoke resentment in direction of authorities forward of a city-wide legislative election in early December.
Wang Fuk Court docket is one in all many high-rise housing complexes in Hong Kong, some of the densely populated areas on the earth. Tai Po, positioned close to the border with mainland China, is a longtime suburban district with some 300,000 residents.
Occupied since 1983, the complicated is underneath the federal government’s subsidised house possession scheme, in accordance with property company web sites. Based on on-line posts, it has been present process renovations for a yr at a price of HK$330 million ($42.43 million), with every unit paying between HK$160,000 and HK$180,000.
