Death toll in Hong Kong high-rise fire rises to 36, with 279 people reported missing

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in years blazed late into the night on Wednesday as the city’s leader confirmed at least 36 people, including a firefighter, had died and another 279 people were reported missing.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated as the blaze spread across seven high-rise apartment buildings in a housing complex in Tai Po district, a suburb in the New Territories. At least 29 others remained in hospital.

“Police and the Fire Services Department have already set up a dedicated investigation team to investigate the cause of the fire,” John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said.

He said the fire was “coming under control” shortly past midnight local time.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday expressed condolences to the firefighter who died and extended sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He also urged efforts to minimise casualties and losses.

The housing complex consisted of eight buildings with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 residents, including many elderly people.

The complex was built in the 1980s and has recently been undergoing a major renovation.

Fire chiefs said high temperatures at the scene made it difficult for crews to mount rescue operations.

It was not known how the fire started, but officials said the fire started at the external scaffolding of one of the buildings, a 32-storey tower, and later spread to inside the building and then to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.

A column of flames and thick smoke rose as the blaze spread quickly on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the exterior of the buildings.

About 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters.

Multiple buildings close to each other were set ablaze, with flames and smoke shooting out of windows as night fell.

Authorities said that hundreds of firefighters, police officers and paramedics were deployed. Firefighters aimed water at the intense flames from high up on ladder trucks.

The blaze, which started mid-afternoon, was upgraded to a level five  alarm, the highest level of severity, as night fell. Authorities said that conditions remained very challenging for firefighters.

“Debris and scaffolding of the affected buildings (is) falling down,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Service operations.

“The temperature inside the buildings concerned is very high. It’s difficult for us to enter the building and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations.”

The fire department said that it received “numerous” calls requesting assistance. It said some residents remained trapped as of Wednesday night.

Firefighters deployed more than 140 fire trucks and more than 60 ambulances to the scene.

The dead included a 37-year-old firefighter, while another received treatment for heat exhaustion, director of Fire Services Andy Yeung said.

District officials in Tai Po have opened temporary shelters for people left homeless by the fire.

“I’ve given up thinking about my property,” a resident who only provided her surname, Wu, told local TV station TVB. “Watching it burn like that was really frustrating.”

Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects, though the government said earlier this year that it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.

The fire is the deadliest in Hong Kong in years. In November 1996, 41 people died in a commercial building in Kowloon in a fire that lasted for about 20 hours.