Hong Kong’s worst fire in generations fuels scrutiny of safety lapses

HONG KONG – In Hong Kong, a city where millions of residents sleep, eat and work high above the ground in towers pressed together like books on a shelf, there has long been the threat that a massive fire could trap people inside their high rises.

By Nov 27, the scale of that nightmare emerged, as an inferno that began a day earlier with one 32-storey building and quickly engulfed six other towers at an ageing apartment complex became the deadliest fire in nearly 80 years.

Early on Nov 28, the authorities said

at least 94 people had died

in the blaze and dozens of others were still unaccounted for.

Hundreds of firefighters worked to put out flames that continued to burn in three buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex in Tai Po district 24 hours after they were first reported in the afternoon on Nov 26.

They searched for survivors who had been trapped inside the buildings, pulling both people and bodies out. More than 70 others were in the hospital, some in critical condition.

Outside a nearby community centre, dozens of people whose relatives were missing

waited in line within a police cordon

to see if their loved ones were among those whose bodies had been found.

Investigators began piecing together how the flames moved so swiftly, homing in on the green construction netting that shrouded the buildings slated for renovation, as well as polystyrene foam that had apparently been installed on the windows.

The police arrested two directors and a consultant linked to a construction company that installed the construction materials, saying they were suspected of manslaughter and gross negligence.

Residents, many of them older, described narrowly escaping and complained that they were given no warning, not even by a fire alarm.

Public anger rose over whether Hong Kong’s building-safety system has kept pace with the vulnerabilities of one of the world’s fastest-ageing populations.

‘Absolutely scandalous’

Some observers and local politicians began to ask whether the disaster was the result of corruption and a lack of accountability, as residents raised questions about perceived collusion between housing committees that oversee maintenance and renovations of such estates and contractors.

The latest death toll makes the fire the deadliest since a 1948 warehouse fire killed 179 people. It also surpassed the toll of the

blaze that broke out at Grenfell Tower

, an apartment block in central London in 2017, in which 72 people were killed.

“This is absolutely scandalous. This is not what Hong Kong is known for,” said Ms Emily Lau, a long-time pro-democracy politician and former lawmaker who now hosts an interview show on YouTube.

She said the scale of the tragedy pointed to insufficient government supervision: “This has opened up a can of worms about misconduct.”

In the face of mounting questions and pressure from China’s leader, Mr Xi Jinping, for “all-out efforts” to respond to the disaster, the Hong Kong government moved to show it was taking swift action.

Mr John Lee, the Beijing-backed chief executive of Hong Kong, visited the site and later told reporters that the fires were under control.

He announced a HK$300 million (S$50 million) fund for victims.

His government also kicked off a citywide inspection of housing estates currently under renovation. The city’s anti-corruption bureau also announced it was setting up a task force to investigate potential corruption related to the construction work on the complex.

Early on Nov 28, the blaze had been largely extinguished, and firefighters were conducting search-and-rescue operations.

But the fire was

another crisis for Mr Lee’s government

, which already faces demands from Beijing to fix Hong Kong’s housing market, one of the least affordable in the world, and shore up the economy.

And as public distrust swells, with people posting videos and photos online expressing concern about what they feared was flammable construction materials on other buildings, the political fallout could be significant.

“A bigger question is this: Should a senior official take overall responsibility for this horrendous fire?” said Professor Wang Xiangwei, who teaches journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University.

The authorities said a preliminary investigation revealed that protective nets, tarpaulin and other materials used for the renovation may not have met fire-safety standards. They identified the registered contractor for the building complex as Prestige Construction and Engineering.

Bamboo, netting and foam

The mesh netting was probably a factor in how quickly the fire spread, said Mr Tony Za, a former chair of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers Building Division.

Typically made of fibres and plastic, such netting is used to keep construction materials and other objects from falling off bamboo scaffolding – which companies in Hong Kong commonly use when repairing a building’s exterior – and hitting the ground below.

Bamboo scaffolding

may have also contributed to the blaze, experts said.

The government announced earlier in 2025 that it would phase out the use of the material and replace it with steel scaffolding, for greater safety.

In October, another bamboo scaffolding caught fire in Hong Kong’s central business district. That incident, along with the devastating fire this week, would likely accelerate the construction industry’s switch to metal scaffolding, Mr Za said.

The government’s investigation also pointed to foam boards that had been found installed on windows.

One Wang Fuk Court resident, Mr Lau Yu Hung, 78, said many of the windows in his building were covered with a thin layer of polystyrene foam, and that he heard it was meant to protect the glass from the repairs being done to the facade.

The material blocked much of the light and prevented residents from seeing outside, he said. It was only because of a small gap in the foam covering his bathroom window that he was able to see that a neighbouring building was on fire and escape in time, he said.

The blaze spread quickly in this complex of about 2,000 units, which housed many retirees. Some residents had lived there for decades after buying their apartments through a government-subsidised home-ownership programme in the 1980s. Mr Lau said he had lived there for 20 years.

Near the complex, dozens of family members still searching for their loved ones gathered outside to file slowly into a community centre where they viewed photos of victims.

Ms S.F. Chiang, 68, went there to see if her 62-year-old brother and 24-year-old niece were among the victims. But she did not find them among the photos that the police provided.

“My heart hurts to think about them,” she said. NYTIMES