Death toll in Hong Kong apartment fire rises to 75 Video/Updated

The Fire Services Department has said 75 deaths have been recorded in Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades and there are 76 injured people.

Among the injured are 11 firefighters. Rescue work is ongoing, SCMP writes. 

18:37

The death toll from the fire that swept through a residential complex in Hong Kong has risen to 65. 

Rescue operations remain underway at the Tai Po estate, where flames that engulfed several buildings have largely been contained, though fires persist on the upper floors of three 31-storey blocks in Wang Fuk Court, South China Morning Post writes. 

Around 280 people remain unaccounted for. Seventy victims, including 10 firefighters, have been hospitalised, while another 62 residents are believed to be trapped across seven buildings.

Authorities said an initial investigation revealed that highly flammable styrofoam had been placed over lift windows on every floor, accelerating the fire’s spread through corridors and into individual flats. Officials also found that the mesh netting and external sheeting covering parts of the buildings did not comply with fire safety standards.

Emergency teams continue to work through the damaged structures as the search for survivors intensifies.

12:23

The number of people who were killed in Hong Kong’s devastating apartment building fire has risen to at least 55, the city’s fire department said on November 27, as per Chinese media.

The fire left at least 123 people injured, among them eight firefighters.

Among those who died, 51 were killed at the scene, and four passed away in the hospital.

The fire department has yet to provide an update on how many remain missing following the blaze; earlier, authorities reported 279 people unaccounted for.

9:28

A blaze in a residential complex in the Tai Po district has become the deadliest apartment fire in Hong Kong’s history, killing at least 44 people.

A further 279 people remain unaccounted for, Caliber.Az reports, citing BBC.

Three executives of the construction company were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter linked to highly flammable materials, including mesh and plastic sheets, that may have accelerated the spread of the fire.

More than 800 firefighters are battling a separate blaze at the Wang Fuk courthouse building, which has been burning for over 18 hours.

Authorities assigned the fire a level-five hazard rating, the most severe classification in Hong Kong.

Hundreds of residents have been relocated to temporary shelters, and emergency housing units are now being assigned to those who require relocation.

The Hong Kong Education Bureau said that thirteen schools will suspend classes today as firefighting efforts continue to disrupt traffic across the area.

A residential complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district caught fire at around 2:51 pm (06:51 GMT) on November 26.

The blaze started on the bamboo scaffolding set up for repair work. Because bamboo burns easily, the flames climbed the exterior rapidly, spreading into the building and then to neighbouring towers.

Renovation work had also covered the blocks in green construction netting from ground level to the rooftops, which ignited as well and accelerated the spread of the fire.

This blaze is the city’s deadliest in more than six decades. It has already equalled the death toll of the August 1962 Sham Shui Po fire, which claimed 44 lives and left hundreds homeless.

Hong Kong has not seen a comparable tragedy since November 1996, when a fire at the Garley Building in Kowloon killed 41 people and injured 81 others.

By Jeyhun Aghazada