Hong Kong on Saturday mourned the 128 people known to have died in a huge fire at a high-rise apartment complex, a toll that is likely to rise with 150 still missing days after the disaster.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Police revised down the number of people unaccounted for to 150 from 200, after some relatives managed to reconnect with loved ones they initially reported as missing.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation of fire risks at high-rise buildings, especially residential blocks undergoing renovation.
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body, the ICAC, said it had arrested three more people. Aged between 52 and 68, they were in charge of the contractor of the renovation project at the complex.
SEARCH FOR BODIES CONTINUES
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.
Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-staff.
Condolence books have been set up at 18 points around the former British colony for the public to pay their respects.
“Our most heartfelt thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones and with those that are now living with shock and uncertainty,” Britain’s King Charles said in a statement about the “appalling tragedy”.
At Wang Fuk Court, police officers wearing white overalls, helmets and oxygen masks clambered into the buildings over mounds of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles created after firefighters doused the buildings for days to try to reduce the temperatures inside.
Search operations could take three to four weeks to complete, said Hong Kong’s Home Secretary, Alice Mak. The two blocks searched on Saturday were the least damaged, police said.
Families and mourners gathered nearby and left hundreds of bouquets of flowers. Some faced the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.
Christy Tang, 67, was searching for her friend, a retiree who enjoyed singing and sports. “We checked the photos of dead bodies trying to identify her but to no avail,” she said.
Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also caught up in the tragedy. Hong Kong has around 368,000 such workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces.
An injured worker from the Philippines, Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employers’ three-month-old baby in a wet blanket while trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Raychelle Loreto said.
“I’m feeling very weak. I can’t breathe,” she mumbled through sobs in a panicked audio message sent to her sister via Facebook as the situation escalated.
DEADLIEST BLAZE SINCE 1948
The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze. It has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining about fire hazards posed by the renovation, the city’s Labour Department said.
The residents raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said.
Hong Kong’s anti-graft body said it had arrested 11 people in connection with the investigation, including three previously questioned by police.
The trio were two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for over a year. They were suspected of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows, police said previously.
Prestige did not answer calls for comment.
Hong Kong’s Buildings Department suspended all work on 28 projects managed by Prestige in the city on Saturday because of safety concerns, and ordered contractors to halt work at two other sites.
