The blaze began at around 3 p.m. on Nov. 26 at the Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong’s suburban Tai Po district. By around 2 a.m., it had largely been brought under control, although fires were still seen burning in some units several hours later.
With many questions still unanswered, here’s what we know so far.
While the cause of the blaze has yet to be formally identified, scaffolding on one of the buildings at Wang Cheong House—block F— caught fire first.
According to The South China Morning Post, residents complained about fire alarms failing to go off even after locals could smell smoke. Those inside were alerted only when a security guard knocked on their door, former district councilor Herman Yiu Kwan-ho said, according to the newspaper. Residents of several buildings made calls to report that they were unable to escape, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported earlier, citing a police statement.
Video footage showed the blaze still raging into the evening. By around midnight on Nov. 27, the fire was largely under control, although fired were still seen burning in a handful of apartments at about 9:30 a.m., according to live footage. Several people were seen being carried out of the complex on stretchers at around 10 a.m.
Altogether, more than 140 fire engines and at least 800 firefighters, as well as about 60 ambulances, attended the scene. One firefighter died and several others were injured.
Firefighters arrived on the scene five minutes after being alerted, but they struggled to enter the buildings due to the high temperatures and falling debris and scaffolding.
So far it’s not clear how the fire spread so quickly. Vincent Ho, founder of Hong Kong think tank the Institute of Building Safety, listed the flammable bamboo scaffolding, the close proximity of the buildings and the possible presence of materials that were not sufficiently fire resistant among plausible reasons.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security, Chris Tang, said that “protective netting, waterproof cloth and plastic sheeting on the exterior of the building burned far more intensely and spread much faster than compliant materials normally would.” He called the situation “unusual.”
Styrofoam found at the scene also accelerated the spread of the fire through the corridors into some units, according to a fire department official. It also produced thick smoke and heat, making it more challenging for firefighters to navigate the scene.
Lee announced a task force to investigate the blaze, promising that any wrongdoing would be pursued “in accordance with laws and regulations,” and that all ongoing renovation sites using scaffolding would be checked for proper materials and fire safety. Police arrested three senior figures at an engineering company on suspicion of manslaughter.
The complex was built as government-subsidized housing in the 1980s and was undergoing a lengthy renovation. The affected seven buildings — out of a total of eight in the complex — were covered in bamboo scaffolding and mesh as part of the construction work.
The renovation work at Wang Fuk Court was carried out by Prestige Construction & Engineering Co. Bloomberg News visited Prestige’s office on Thursday, but the shutters were down and no one responded despite repeated knocking. Phone calls to the office went unanswered.
Bamboo scaffolding has been a common feature of Hong Kong construction sites for over a century. It’s cheaper than steel and is seen as a more versatile, adaptable option for projects in a densely populated city where there’s often limited space between buildings.
The government moved recently to phase in the use of more metal scaffolding, citing safety concerns surrounding bamboo due to its high combustibility and tendency to deteriorate over time.
A fire in a Shek Kip Mei shanty town in the northeast of the Kowloon peninsula on Christmas Day, 1953, displaced tens of thousands of refugees, prompting the government to start providing public housing and helping to improve the living conditions of many lower-income families.
With seven of the eight towers affected by the blaze, the number of people who have lost their homes could be in the thousands, though there is no exact number at this point. As of Thursday night, the government said there were more than 500 residents staying in nine temporary shelters.
The government has arranged accommodation in hotels and youth hostels for the next few weeks, but finding more permanent accommodation for them in a city notorious for its tight housing market will be a challenge.
Volunteers and nonprofit organizations mobilized to distribute daily necessities for affected residents, including food, water, clothing and blankets.
