Harry Cheung, 66, has lived in the Tai Po complex for more than 40 years. Around 2:45 p.m. on November 26 he heard a loud noise and saw fire break out in a nearby block. “I don’t even know how I feel right now,” he told Reuters. “I’m just thinking about where I’m going to sleep tonight because I probably won’t be able to go back home.”
The fire tore through Wang Fuk Court, a 32-story housing complex of eight blocks and 2,000 apartments near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China. Early reports counted at least 44 dead, a firefighter among them, 29 people in hospital and 279 missing. About 900 people spent the night in shelters.
It was the deadliest blaze in Hong Kong in three decades.
Fire on the bamboo
The fire department took the first report at 2:51 p.m. By 3:34 p.m. it had been raised to a No. 4 alarm, and by nightfall to the highest level. Pictures from the scene showed the bamboo scaffolding on the outside of the towers wrapped in flames, with black smoke above. The BBC reported that the cause was unknown, though the flames were believed to have spread fast along the scaffolding. The complex, occupied since 1983, was undergoing major renovations. Hong Kong is one of the few places left that still uses bamboo scaffolding.
Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of the fire department, said “extremely high temperatures” were making it hard to reach people trapped inside. China’s President Xi Jinping called for an “all-out effort” to put the fire out and limit casualties and losses, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Arrests
Police arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter, Reuters reported on the day of the fire. They were aged between 52 and 68, and were later released on bail.
More followed. From November 29 to December 1, police arrested nine more men and one woman in Mong Kok and North Point, also on suspicion of manslaughter, bringing the total to 13. The ten, aged 40 to 77, included a consultant, scaffolding subcontractors and a middleman on the renovation project. A man and a woman, both 46, were bailed and told to report back to police in early December. The rest were held for further inquiries.
The Regional Crime Unit of New Territories North is running the investigation. Police have asked anyone who saw the fire or has information to call 5566 0087.
Sources
- Ten Arrested for Manslaughter Related to Tai Po Fire Incident in Hong Kong
- Dozens dead, hundreds missing; fire grips towering Hong Kong buildings
