Hong Kong tower fire death toll rises to 128 as 200 remain missing

HONG KONG - The death toll from

Hong Kong’s worst fire in nearly 80 years

has risen to 128, and about 200 people remain missing from the high-rise residential complex that was engulfed by the blaze, the city’s security chief said on Nov 28.

The fire in the Wang Fuk Court development, with eight 32-storey towers in the northern district of Tai Po, started and quickly spread on the afternoon of Nov 26.

“We do not rule out the possibility that more bodies could be discovered when police enter the building for detailed investigations,” Hong Kong Security Chief Chris Tang told a press conference.

Only 39 of the 128 dead had been identified, he added.

Mr Tang also said fire alarms in the buildings had not been working properly.

Rescue efforts had ended and at least 79 people, including 12 firefighters, were injured, he added.

“Our aim now is to make sure the temperature decreases in the building and once everything is deemed safe, police will collect evidence and conduct further investigation,” Mr Tang said.

The estate housing more than 4,600 people had been wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh for renovation work.

Police said they had arrested three construction company officials on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards that covered windows.

Grim task of identifying loved ones

Residents of the housing complex were told by authorities in 2024 that they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining repeatedly about fire hazards posed by ongoing renovation works, the city’s Labour Department told Reuters.

The residents had raised concerns over the renovations in September 2024, including the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors had used to cover the bamboo scaffolding erected around the buildings, a department spokesperson said in an e-mail.

While firefighters contained the blaze on Nov 28 and doused the still-smouldering buildings, families had the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.

A resident, who did not want to be identified, said a friend’s wife was among those unaccounted for.

“Rationally speaking, it means there’s no hope,” she said. “But the bodies still have to be found, right? Let me see if they’ve found them... It’s just too sorrowful. When it involves people you know, it’s even more painful.”

Deputy director of fire services Derek Chan said most of the victims were found in two high-rise blocks in the eight-tower complex.

He said firefighters found residents who were alive in several of the buildings, but gave no further details.

The South China Morning Post reported that one survivor was found in a stairwell of one building.

Rescuers battled intense heat, thick smoke and collapsing scaffolding and debris as they fought to reach residents feared trapped on the upper floors of the complex.

The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948

Dozens of domestic workers from the Philippines were caught in the disaster and 19 were still missing, said Ms Edwina Antonio, executive director at migrant women refuge association Bethune House.

Indonesia’s consulate said two of the dead were the country’s nationals, also working as domestic helpers.

Hong Kong has around 368,000 domestic workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers.

The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to

London’s Grenfell Tower inferno

, which killed 72 people in 2017. That fire was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.

Police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for more than a year.

“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” police superintendent Eileen Chung said on Nov 27.

Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment.

Police seized bidding documents, a list of employees, 14 computers and three mobile phones in a raid of the company’s office, the government added.

The city’s development bureau has discussed

gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding

with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.

Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said the government would set up a HK$300 million (S$50 million) fund to help residents, while some of China’s biggest listed companies announced donations.

On the second night after the blaze, dozens of evacuees set up mattresses in a nearby mall, with many saying official evacuation centres should be saved for those with greater need.

People – from elderly residents to schoolchildren – wrapped themselves in duvets and huddled in tents outside a McDonald’s restaurant and convenience shops as volunteers handed out snacks and toiletries.

“We don’t know when we can go home. We have to wait for the police to notify,” said an elderly man who was preparing to sleep in the mall.

“Wang Fuk Court is burning badly, we are afraid that it is dangerous to go home… I am anxious, I cannot sleep well here,” said the man, who gave his name only as Cui.

Hong Kong, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, is scattered with high-rise housing complexes. Its sky-high property prices have long been a trigger for discontent and analysts say the tragedy could stoke resentment towards the authorities despite efforts to tighten political and national security control.

The leadership of both the Hong Kong government and China’s Communist Party moved quickly to show they attached utmost importance to a tragedy seen as a potential test of Beijing’s grip on the semi-autonomous region. REUTERS