For the second day in a row, firefighters continued to battle a fire at a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong, where seven of the eight towers of Wang Fuk Court, a high-density residential complex housing thousands of people, have burned down.
The number of officially confirmed dead has risen to 83 people, while contact with 279 people has still been lost. More than 70 people, including 11 firefighters, were injured. About 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters.
The authorities did not provide updated data on the number of missing people or how many people may be inside the buildings dilapidated by the fire. Firefighters go through the burned buildings floor by floor, apartment by apartment.
According to the investigation, the fire started from bamboo scaffolding that was used to cover residential towers in connection with a renovation project. The fire rose along the mounting grid and apparently engulfed the cladding slabs.
The fire quickly engulfed seven of the eight apartment buildings. By Thursday evening, the fire in four of them had been effectively extinguished, and the fire in the remaining three towers was under control.
Hong Kong authorities have detained three people on suspicion of manslaughter: two directors and a consulting engineer of a construction company are suspected of gross negligence that led to a fire and death. Police searched the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company, which was responsible for the renovation work, and seized documentation.