Hong Kong: Death Toll Rises To 94, Hundreds still missing
HONG KONG — In one of the most harrowing incidents to strike the city in recent memory, a ferocious fire ravaged the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex, pushing the death toll to 94 and leaving dozens still missing amid ongoing searches. Firefighters, exhausted after two grueling days, finally brought the flames under control late Thursday, but not before confronting a cascade of challenges that turned the blaze into a nightmare for responders and residents alike.
The inferno erupted Wednesday afternoon in the Tai Po district, racing through seven of the eight 32-story towers in the sprawling estate. What began as a spark in the bamboo scaffolding and plastic netting—erected for extensive renovation work—quickly ballooned into a wall of fire and smoke, trapping scores inside. By Thursday, thick plumes continued to curl from upper levels as crews, armed with flashlights, picked through soot-choked hallways and precarious rubble, unit by unit.
“Our firefighting operation is almost complete,” announced Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Services Operations, in a briefing that underscored the operation’s toll. He noted that teams were now laser-focused on quelling stray embers and debris to pave the way for thorough search efforts. Yet, the path to containment was anything but straightforward. Chan detailed a litany of obstacles: the blaze’s blistering pace, which demanded constant redirection of personnel to frantic distress calls; plummeting scaffolding and debris from heights that endangered everyone below; and emergency vehicles stymied by tangled wreckage of construction materials.
Visibility inside was a cruel adversary—extreme heat warped the air, while acrid darkness swallowed corridors, compelling firefighters to battle both flames and fear while evacuating the desperate. Footage captured the chaos: rescuers in smoke-shrouded rooms, sparks bursting from shattered windows like defiant stars. At least 76 people suffered injuries, among them 11 firefighters, with 12 survivors clinging to life in critical condition and 28 others listed as serious.
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As investigators circle the ruins, scrutiny intensifies on the blaze’s origins. Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption has initiated an inquiry into the renovation project, while police detained three men accused of carelessly abandoning foam packaging on-site, potentially fueling the spread. Residents, recounting their terror to AFP, decried the eerie silence of absent fire alarms, forcing hasty warnings by pounding on doors and ringing bells. “The fire spread so quickly,” lamented one evacuee, identified only by the surname Suen. “Ringing doorbells, knocking on doors, alerting the neighbors, telling them to leave—that’s what the situation was like.”
City leader John Lee revealed early Thursday that contact had been severed with 279 individuals, though subsequent checks by firefighters accounted for some. With the fire declared fully doused by Friday dawn, authorities pledged a sweeping probe and a mandatory safety audit for all similar repair sites across the city. As the sun rose over the scarred skyline, the focus sharpened on the unopened flats, where the final, heartbreaking tally of the lost awaits.