Hong Kong’s deadliest hearth in many years has raised questions on corruption and negligence within the renovations of the condo advanced the place at the very least 128 folks died.
An intense hearth broke out at Wang Fuk Courtroom advanced in Hong Kong’s northern suburbs Wednesday afternoon, with flames masking seven of the eight towers. The advanced was residence to some 4,800 residents, a few of whom had raised security considerations concerning the renovations greater than yr earlier than the hearth.
Police on Wednesday arrested three males from a development firm on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They had been launched on bail however then arrested by the Unbiased Fee Towards Corruption, the authority mentioned Saturday night time, pointing to their management function within the renovations. ICAC had additionally beforehand arrested beforehand arrested seven males and one girl related to the undertaking.
Police haven’t recognized the corporate the place the suspects labored, however paperwork posted to the owners affiliation’s web site confirmed that the Status Building & Engineering Firm was in command of renovations. Police have seized containers of paperwork from the corporate, the place telephones rang unanswered Thursday.
Officers additionally mentioned they had been investigating the supplies used, each the netting on the scaffolding and the froth panels masking home windows, and their function within the blaze.
Firefighters relaxation in entrance of the Wang Fuk Courtroom residential property following a large, lethal hearth that tore via the advanced in Tai Po district, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 28, 2025.
Leung Man Hei/Bloomberg/Getty
Residents highlighted issues of safety a yr earlier than hearth
For nearly a yr, some residents on the Wang Fuk Courtroom advanced had been elevating security considerations to Hong Kong authorities concerning the scaffolding supplies getting used within the renovation undertaking, in response to paperwork reviewed by the AP, particularly concerning the netting that lined the scaffolding.
Hong Kong’s labor division in an announcement on Saturday confirmed it had acquired such complaints, including that officers had carried out 16 inspections of Wang Fuk Courtroom’s renovation undertaking since July 2024, and had warned contractors a number of occasions in writing that they need to guarantee they met hearth security necessities. Town even carried out an inspection as late as one week earlier than the hearth.
The labor division mentioned it had reviewed the product high quality certificates of the netting and that it was consistent with requirements, however that the protection netting had not been the earlier goal of inspections.
Preliminary investigations confirmed the hearth began on a lower-level scaffolding web of one of many buildings. It then unfold quickly as the froth panels caught hearth, mentioned Chris Tang, town’s secretary for safety. Police additionally mentioned they’d been trying on the extremely flammable foam panels.
“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang mentioned.
Firefighting efforts on the Wang Fuk Courtroom residential property following a large, lethal hearth that tore via the advanced in Tai Po district, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 28, 2025.
Leung Man Hei/Bloomberg/Getty
The labor division mentioned afterward Saturday that three prosecutions had been introduced in opposition to the corporate over breaches of security rules for working at peak within the development and convictions in two of the instances resulted in fines of totaling 30,000 Hong Kong {dollars}, or $3,850. The corporate additionally was fined thrice in 2023 for separate violations unrelated to the Tai Po undertaking.
First responders additionally discovered that some hearth alarms within the advanced, which housed many older folks, didn’t sound when examined, mentioned Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fireplace Providers. He didn’t specify what number of weren’t working or if any of the others had been.
Intense blaze took days to place out
It took firefighters a day to deliver the hearth underneath management, and it was not absolutely extinguished till Friday morning — some 40 hours after it began.
Crews prioritized residences from which they’d acquired emergency calls in the course of the blaze however had been unable to achieve within the hours that the hearth burned uncontrolled, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fireplace Providers, instructed reporters.
Twelve firefighters had been among the many 79 folks injured within the blaze, and one firefighter was killed.
Even two days after the hearth started, smoke continued to float out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.
Individuals have a look at flames engulfing a constructing after a fireplace broke out at Wang Fuk Courtroom, a residential property within the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Wednesday, Nov. 26 2025.
Chan Lengthy Hei / AP
Extra our bodies could also be discovered
Whereas extra our bodies is likely to be recovered, authorities mentioned, crews have completed their seek for anybody residing trapped inside.
Authorities mentioned Saturday they should determine 44 extra our bodies out of the 128 recovered. About 150 folks stay unaccounted for.
The useless included two Indonesian migrant staff, the Indonesian international ministry mentioned Thursday. About 11 different migrants from the nation who had been working as home helpers within the condo advanced stay lacking, Indonesian Consul Normal Yul Edison mentioned Friday.
Close to the location of the hearth, Sara Yu held the hand of her 2-year-old son, Dominic, as they every positioned a single white rose right into a rising cluster of the flowers in a babies’s playground.
“I brought the kids here because I want them to understand that living in this world is something to be cherished,” she mentioned, holding again tears.
Thick smoke and flames rise as a serious hearth engulfs a number of condo blocks on the Wang Fuk Courtroom residential property in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025.
YAN ZHAO / AFP
Exterior a constructing near the scene of the hearth the place relations got here to determine family members from images, folks positioned bouquets of white roses, lilies and carnations. “More than 128 innocent lives, what did they do wrong?” requested an indication positioned among the many flowers.
Town lowered flags to half employees in mourning, and Chief Government John Lee, led a three-minute silence Saturday from the federal government headquarters with officers all wearing black.
The fireplace was the deadliest in Hong Kong in many years. A 1996 hearth in a business constructing in Kowloon killed 41 folks. A warehouse hearth in 1948 killed 176 folks, in response to the South China Morning Publish.
Extra from CBS Information
