As of the afternoon of November 27, the fire at Wang Fuk Court apartment complex in Hong Kong (China) the day before had increased the number of deaths to 55, while more than 200 people had not been found.
The Hong Kong Fire Department (China) said that 51 victims died at the scene and 4 people died at the hospital. Rescue forces recorded 62 people calling for help from inside the buildings but could not reach them.
Currently, 76 injured people are being treated, of which 15 are in critical condition. The Indonesian consulate confirmed that two citizens working as domestic helpers were killed. The consulate of Vietnam in Hong Kong (China) announced that the victim was not recorded as Vietnamese.
Hong Kong Special Zone Commander Li Jia Zhao named the number of missing people as 279, but authorities have contacted 72 people on the list. One survivor was found on the 31st floor of Wang Tai House and was taken to the rooftop to be transferred to the hospital.
The fire started from the scaffolding outside Wang Cheong House on the afternoon of November 26, then quickly spread across the bamboo scaffolding system, covering 7 buildings and lasting for 19 hours.
The buildings in the complex are all over 30 floors high, with about 4,000 residents. Authorities mobilized hundreds of fire trucks to handle the situation, while a building in the cluster was not affected.
Hong Kong (China) police have arrested 3 suspects aged 52 to 68 on charges of murder, including 2 directors of construction companies and 1 consultant. They were accused of using substandard materials for the scaffolding and blocking the windows with foam boards during construction, causing the fire to spread.
Many residents said they could not hear the fire alarm and had to knock on the door themselves to warn other households. Mr. Ly Gia Sieu said that the authorities will check all the houses under repair to assess the safety level of scaffolding and construction materials.
General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, including firefighters who died while on duty.
