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Hong Kong police say unsafe scaffolding and foam may have spread fire that killed at least 83

Par :Helen Davidson in Hong Kong · Oliver Holmes and agencies

27 novembre 2025 à 17:45

Three construction employees arrested as firefighters battle to reach trapped people, with more than 250 still missing

Hong Kong police have alleged unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used during maintenance work may have been behind the rapid spread of a devastating fire at a group of residential tower blocks that has killed at least 83 people and left more than 250 missing.

Firefighters were still battling to reach people who could be trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex on Thursday due to the intense heat and thick smoke generated by the fire. Late in the day, a survivor was rescued from a stairway on the 16th floor of one of the towers, the South China Morning Post reported.

‘There should have been an alarm’: in air thick with acrid smoke, people in Hong Kong are reeling and angry

The Guardian

Par :Helen Davidson in Hong Kong

27 novembre 2025 à 14:28

As apartment complex still blazes more than 24 hours after fire began, police suspect cause is owing to ‘grossly negligent’ action

More than 24 hours after the first tower caught fire, the Hong Kong residential complex was still burning. Fire crews blasted water from cherrypickers at the mid-level floors, but above that, the fires were roaring out of reach.

Wang Fuk Court, in the northern Hong Kong district of Tai Po, was home to about 4,800 people. The eight-tower complex had been under renovation for years, clad in bamboo scaffolding and mesh.