Death toll rises to at least 128 in Hong Kong building fire
At least 128 people died in a building fire in Hong Kong, with hundreds still missing.
On November 29, Hong Kong mourned the loss of 128 people killed in a massive fire in a high-rise apartment building. With more than 150 days left unaccounted for, the death toll could rise further.
Authorities are investigating possible corruption and the use of dangerous materials during renovation work at the Wang Fu court complex and have arrested 14 people in connection with the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years.
Rescue operations at the scene in Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, ended on November 28, but police say more bodies may be found in the coming weeks as they search dangerously burnt-out buildings.
Police revised down the number of missing from 200 to 150 on November 29 after confirming with some relatives that they had managed to reunite with loved ones who had originally been reported missing.
Police officials said at a news conference that the hundreds of officers who were called out to search for the bodies were unable to find any more bodies, but they did rescue three cats and a turtle.
The fire broke out in the afternoon of November 26 and quickly consumed seven of the complex’s eight 32-storey blocks. The blocks were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh, and layered with foam insulation for the renovation.
Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation into the dangers of fire in high-rise buildings, especially in residential areas undergoing renovation.
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body ICAC announced on November 29 that it had arrested three more people. They ranged in age from 52 to 68 and were working as contractors on a complex renovation project.
Hong Kong mourns as body search continues
Authorities said the fire alarms at the Wangfu Court House, which is home to more than 4,600 people, were not working properly.
Hong Kong leader John Lee and other officials and civil servants, dressed in black, observed three minutes of silence outside central government buildings with flags lowered to half-staff early on Nov. 29.
Condolence books have been set up at 18 locations around the former British colony for the public to express their condolences.
Britain’s King Charles said in a statement about the “horrible tragedy”: “My heart goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one, and to those who are currently living with shock and anxiety.”
At the Wangfu courthouse, police officers wearing white overalls, hard hats and oxygen masks were seen climbing into the building by climbing over piles of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles that had formed after firefighters sprayed water on the building for several days to cool the building.
Hong Kong’s Home Affairs Minister Alice Mak said the search operation could take three to four weeks to complete. Police said the two blocks searched on November 29 were the least affected.
Family members and mourners gathered nearby and laid out hundreds of bouquets of flowers, but some faced the grueling task of viewing photos of the dead taken by rescue workers.
Christy Tan, 67, was looking for a friend who is an outgoing retiree who enjoys singing and sports. “We have examined photographs of her body in an attempt to identify her, but to no avail,” he said, laying flowers in memory of her.
Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also involved in the tragedy. There are about 368,000 such workers in Hong Kong, most of them women from low-income countries in Asia, who often live in close quarters with their employers.
Indonesia announced that seven of its citizens were killed in the incident. The Philippines said one of its nationals was seriously injured and another was missing, and 28 people believed to be residents of the area were missing.
Injured Filipino worker Lodra Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employer’s 3-month-old baby with a wet blanket and was trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Rachelle Loreto told Reuters.
As the situation worsened, she sent panicked voice messages to her sister via Facebook, crying and muttering, “I’m so weak. I can’t breathe.”
Worst fire since 1948
The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when a warehouse fire killed 176 people, and has drawn comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people in 2017.
The city’s Ministry of Labor told Reuters that residents of Wangfu Court were told by authorities last year that the “fire risk is relatively low” after they repeatedly complained about the fire risk from ongoing renovations.
Residents raised concerns in September 2024, including about the possibility that the protective green mesh used by contractors to cover the bamboo scaffolding was flammable, a department spokesperson said.
Hong Kong anti-graft groups announced on November 28 that they had arrested eight people, including engineering consultants, scaffolding subcontractors and intermediaries.
Earlier, police arrested two directors and a technical consultant of Prestige Construction, a company identified by the government as having been maintaining Wang Fu Court for more than a year, on suspicion of manslaughter for using dangerous materials such as flammable foam board to block the windows.
Prestige did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Activists call for independent investigation
Public anger over the fires has so far been subdued, in contrast to massive pro-democracy protests in 2019 that prompted the Chinese government to tighten its grip on the city.
Still, some disgruntled volunteers were handing out leaflets on November 28, calling for government accountability, an independent investigation into possible corruption, proper resettlement of residents, and a review of construction oversight.
An online petition expressing their demands had gathered around 10,000 signatures by the afternoon of November 29th.
As with other major fires like Grenfell, pressure for answers could spread quickly beyond construction companies to government regulators.
A spokesperson for China’s National Security Office in Hong Kong said in a statement on Saturday that it firmly supports the city government in harshly punishing those who use the “disaster to disrupt Hong Kong.”
Reporting in Hong Kong by John Geddie, Jesse Pang, James Pomfret, Farah Master, Mei Mei Chew, Tyrone Siu, Artoon Pukasuk, Edmond Ng, Nicoko Chan and Yudi Kaya Budiman. Written by: John Geddie Edited by: Stephen Coates, William Mallard
