HONG KONG: 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.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court, located in Hong Kong’s northern district of Tai Po, told AFP that they did not hear any fire alarms and had to go door-to-door to alert neighbours to the danger.
“The fire spread so quickly. I saw one hose trying to save several buildings, and I felt it was far too slow,” said a man surnamed Suen.
“Ringing doorbells, knocking on doors, alerting the neighbours, telling them to leave — that’s what the situation was like,” he said.
The intense flames were finally extinguished in four of the eight apartment blocks and the fires in three others were under control, officials said on Thursday afternoon. One building was not affected.
A “saddened” Pope Leo issued a statement sending “spiritual solidarity to all those suffering... especially the injured and the families who grieve”.
Of the 83 people confirmed dead by 12:00 am local time (1600 GMT Thursday), one was a 37-year-old firefighter and two were Indonesians working as migrant domestic workers.
It is Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948, when an explosion followed by a fire killed 135 people.
But the toll could yet rise further, with city leader John Lee saying in the early hours of Thursday that 279 people were unaccounted for.
Firefighters said later that they had made contact with some of those and authorities have not updated the figure since.
Police at a nearby community centre hoping to identify victims showed photos of bodies pulled from the fire to people seeking missing loved ones.
“If the faces are unrecognisable, there are personal items for people to identify,” said a woman surnamed Cheung who was looking for her relatives.
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