Death Toll in Hong Kong Fire Rises to 94, Police Arrest 3 Suspects

Ninety-four people have been confirmed dead by 6 a.m. local time on Nov. 28 in Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, as firefighters continue to search for missing persons, the city’s fire department said in an update.

The fire, which began on Nov. 26 in a housing complex in Tai Po district in the New Territories, engulfed seven of the Wang Fuk Court complex’s eight towers, sending flames and smoke billowing out of windows. By the early hours of Nov. 28, local time, the fire was mostly contained. Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Services Operations, said firefighters had almost completed their operation.

Officials on Nov. 27 said 51 deaths were declared at the scene, with at least 70 left with injuries ranging from burns to respiratory damage. One firefighter was killed and another 11 injured, officials said.

A total of 279 people were missing on Thursday, according to Hong Kong leader John Lee. It’s unclear how many of them remain missing.

Officials said firefighters were still working on a handful of apartments and trying to enter all of the units in the seven towers to ensure there were no further casualties.

Authorities on Nov. 27 arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter. The men, aged between 52 and 68, are the directors and an engineering consultant of the construction firm responsible for the buildings.

Eileen Chung, a senior superintendent of police, said, “We have reason to believe that those in charge of the construction company were grossly negligent.”

Some of the materials used on the high-rise buildings’ exterior walls likely did not adhere to fire resistance standards, authorities suspect, as the fire spread more quickly than usual.

Highly flammable Styrofoam materials, believed to have been installed by constructors, were found by police outside the windows on every floor close to the lift lobby of the one building that did not catch on fire.

The fire began on one of the 32-story buildings’ external scaffolding and eventually spread internally before igniting nearby towers, likely assisted by windy weather.

Lee said the government will focus on the disaster and pause plans for the Legislative Council’s Dec. 7 elections. While Lee did not say whether the elections would be delayed, he said decisions would arrive “a few days later.”

The high-rise apartment complex, which was built in the 1980s and recently received a major renovation, contained eight buildings with nearly 2,000 apartments and roughly 48,000 residents. Many of its residents are elderly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.