Hong Kong high-rise fire: 3 arrested, a minimum of 44 dead and 279 still missing – National

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in a long time burned through the night, leaving a minimum of 44 people dead and 279 reported missing with rescuers still pulling residents from blazing high-rise apartment buildings into the morning.

Police had arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter in reference to the fireplace which began Wednesday afternoon in a housing complex in Tai Po district, a suburb within the Recent Territories. By Thursday morning local time, the fireplace was yet to be put out and rescues continued.

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Deadly Hong Kong fire rips through residential complex, kills a minimum of 36

A whole bunch of residents were evacuated as the fireplace spread across seven of the eight towers within the Wang Fuk Court complex, as vivid flames and smoke shot out of windows.

Forty of the 44 fatalities were declared dead on the scene, officials said. Not less than 62 others were injured, many affected by burn and inhalation injuries.

Authorities suspected some materials on the outside partitions of the high-rise buildings didn’t meet fire resistance standards, because the rapid spread of the fireplace was unusual.

Police also said they found Styrofoam materials — which can be highly flammable — outside the windows on each floor near the lift lobby of the one unaffected tower, believed to be installed by a construction company.

“We now have reason to imagine that those accountable for the development company were grossly negligent,” said Eileen Chung, a senior superintendent of police. The three men arrested, aged 52 to 68, are the administrators and an engineering consultant of the firm.

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The fireplace at 4 of the buildings was “coming under control” by Thursday morning, in keeping with the Fire Services Department.

Officials said the fireplace began on the external scaffolding of one among the buildings, a 32-storey tower, and later spread to contained in the constructing after which to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday expressed condolences to the firefighter who died and prolonged sympathies to the families of the victims, in keeping with state broadcaster CCTV. He also urged efforts to attenuate casualties and losses.

John Lee, the town’s chief executive, said the federal government will prioritize the disaster and halt public efforts for the Dec. 7 elections for the Legislative Council, the town’s legislature. He didn’t say if the elections might be delayed but said decisions would come “just a few days later.”

The housing complex consisted of eight buildings with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. It was inbuilt the Nineteen Eighties and had recently been undergoing a serious renovation.

Fire chiefs said high temperatures on the scene made it difficult for crews to mount rescue operations. A column of flames and thick smoke rose because the blaze spread quickly on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been arrange around the outside of the buildings. About 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters.

Authorities said that lots of of firefighters, cops and paramedics were deployed. Firefighters aimed water at the extreme flames from high up on ladder trucks.

The blaze, which began mid-afternoon, was upgraded to a level 5 alarm — the very best level of severity — as night fell. Authorities said that conditions remained very difficult for firefighters.

“Debris and scaffolding of the affected buildings (is) falling down,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Service operations. “The temperature contained in the buildings concerned may be very high. It’s difficult for us to enter the constructing and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations.” The fireplace department said it received “quite a few” calls requesting assistance.

Firefighters deployed greater than 200 fire vehicles and about 100 ambulances to the scene.

A 37-year-old firefighter was among the many dead, while one other firefighter received treatment for warmth exhaustion, said Director of Fire Services Andy Yeung.

District officials in Tai Po have opened temporary shelters for people left homeless by the fireplace.

“I’ve given up occupied with my property,” a resident who only provided her surname, Wu, told local TV station TVB. “Watching it burn like that was really frustrating.”

Tai Po is a suburban area within the Recent Territories, within the northern a part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Bamboo scaffolding is a typical sight in Hong Kong at constructing construction and renovation projects, though the federal government said earlier this 12 months that it might start phasing it out for public projects due to safety concerns.

The fireplace is the deadliest in Hong Kong in a long time. In November 1996, 41 people died in a industrial constructing in Kowloon in a level 5 fire that lasted for around 20 hours.

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