Hong Kong: Death toll climbs as firefighters contain apartment blaze

By Africanews with AP

Hong Kong firefighters found dozens more bodies Friday during an intensive apartment-by-apartment search of a high-rise tower complex, after a massive fire engulfed seven of its eight buildings. The death toll in one of the city’s deadliest blazes is now at least 128.

Crews prioritized apartments from which they received more than two dozen calls for assistance during the blaze but were unable to reach, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters.

The toll was increased by 34 after more bodies were found in the blackened towers, and Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters at the scene that the search for victims was continuing and the numbers could still rise.

He said some of the bodies found were so badly burned that they have not yet been identified and that the investigation into the fire would last at least three to four weeks.

Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services, said that first responders found that some fire alarms in the complex were not functioning and that there could be legal consequences.

The fire started midafternoon Wednesday in one of the Wang Fuk Court complex’s eight towers, jumping rapidly from one to the next as bamboo scaffolding covered in netting in place for renovations caught ablaze until seven buildings were engulfed.

It took firefighters some 24 hours to bring the blaze under control, and even nearly two days later, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.

It was not declared fully out until Friday morning.

In total, 2,300 firefighters and medical personnel were involved in the operation, and 12 firefighters were among the 79 people injured overall, Yeung said.

It was unclear how many people could still be inside the buildings, at the complex in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China, which had almost 2,000 apartments and some 4,800 residents.