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At least 94 people have died in a fire in a Hong Kong apartment complex, according to authorities in the Chinese territory who said emergency services appeared to have extinguished the deadliest residential fire in its modern history.
As many as 76 people were injured. It is unclear how many people are still missing. Earlier, authorities had said 279 persons were unaccounted for.
The fire broke out on Wednesday in Wang Fuk Court, a typical Hong Kong residential complex with apartment blocks more than 30 storeys high, in Tai Po about 20km from the territory’s commercial centre. The flames quickly spread to seven of the estate’s eight towers.
By 11am on Friday, a livestream of the site on a Hong Kong news channel appeared to show the fire extinguished, with smoke no longer coming out of the burnt buildings.
The “firefighting operation is almost complete”, Derek Chan, deputy director of the Hong Kong fire services, said on Friday at a news briefing. “We will conduct forcible entry operation into all units in the seven buildings to ensure no one else is still trapped inside.”
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities and most residents live in high-rise apartments.
Fire officials said the intensity of the blaze had made efforts to battle it and to conduct search and rescue more difficult. On Thursday evening, hundreds of residents slept a second night in shelters or were taken in by friends and relatives.
The housing estate had been undergoing renovations and was covered in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh. Police on Thursday said they had arrested two construction company officials and one engineering consultant on suspicion of manslaughter.
Hong Kong chief executive John Lee visited the site on Thursday and said the city had established a task force to investigate the fire and whether exterior materials on the buildings met fire safety standards. Authorities have said a highly flammable styrofoam was used in renovations, causing the fire to spread rapidly.
He later ordered an inspection of all major renovations under way at public housing estates in the territory. The territory’s graft-busting agency has also announced an investigation into whether corruption occurred during the renovation process.
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