More than 55 individuals have perished, and the official casualty count is expected to climb as Hong Kong firefighters battle one of the city’s most lethal fires in history. The blaze, which erupted over 24 hours ago, continues to ravage a multi-block residential complex.
The fire began on Wednesday afternoon at Wang Fuk Court, an eight-block housing estate constructed in the 1980s in the northeastern Tai Po district, spreading to seven of its buildings. By nightfall, the city elevated the fire alarm to level 5—the highest possible severity. It persisted through Thursday, though by 3 p.m. local time (2 a.m. ET), the fires in four blocks had been put out, and the remaining three were reported as “under control.”
Authorities are still investigating the cause, but initial findings suggest the “unusual” speed of its spread might have been aided by combustible materials. Hong Kong Security Secretary Chris Tang stated that officials are examining “protective netting and films on the buildings’ exterior walls, as well as some waterproof tarpaulins and plastic sheeting” that may have “spread the fire much more violently and rapidly than some compliant materials,” along with “expanded polystyrene sheets pasted on windows.”
The city’s longstanding use of bamboo scaffolding, which was present at the Wang Fuk Court blocks undergoing renovation since 2024, has also been implicated. Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department observed upon arrival that the scaffolding and green mesh on the buildings had caught fire, according to a report. Social media videos also depicted the fire consuming the mesh while leaving the bamboo scaffolding intact.
On early Thursday, Hong Kong police announced the arrest of three individuals from a construction engineering company on suspicion of manslaughter, following discoveries that they had installed the polystyrene sheets. A spokesperson indicated that police “have reason to believe that the company’s responsible persons were grossly negligent, which led to the incident and caused the fire to spread rapidly.”
The death toll from the Wang Fuk Court fire is still projected to increase, with dozens hospitalized and hundreds of residents still unaccounted for. However, it has already surpassed the fatalities of the 1996 Garley Building fire, which claimed 41 lives and injured 81.
Nonetheless, Hong Kong has experienced devastating fires in the past, which, like the Wang Fuk Court incident, had specific origins but frequently shared common factors contributing to their deadliness.
High Population Density
Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region of China, ranks among the world’s most densely populated areas, with over 7.5 million inhabitants. Many structures are built in close proximity, particularly on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, facilitating the rapid spread of fires.
A significant contributor to the city’s high population density is the prevalence of “subdivided units”—tiny, sometimes cage-like rooms—where residents can live for a fraction of the cost of a standard Hong Kong apartment.
In April 2024, a fire in a 60-year-old tenement block in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, resulted in five deaths and dozens of injuries. In a report at the time concerning the risks of these homes, the South China Morning Post noted that while a cigarette might have caused the fire, firefighters stated that subdivided units and “structural alterations” within the building complicated rescue efforts.
Thirteen years earlier, a fire in Mong Kok, also in Kowloon, left nine dead, 34 injured, and over a hundred people homeless. Authorities then reported that the danger was intensified by subdivided flats obstructing access points within the building.
Economic Challenges
Hong Kong is also one of the most expensive cities globally, prompting individuals and businesses in the Chinese enclave to often seek cost-saving measures that, in the event of fires, have proven immensely costly.
Subdivided flats are a direct response to housing unaffordability, leading many residents to compromise on safety requirements to secure a place to live.
Fireproofing is also costly. In the 2024 Yau Ma Tei fire, the building’s owners reportedly faced difficulties in securing funds to adhere to fire safety guidelines. A district councilor pointed out that “the increasingly high cost of upgrading fire prevention facilities and equipment, especially in the bidding process, had not helped.”
Bamboo scaffolding, implicated in the recent conflagration’s destruction, is also recognized as an economical alternative for construction businesses, despite the city’s ongoing efforts to “drive a wider adoption of metal scaffolds in public building works progressively.” A bureau official cited bamboo’s “intrinsic weaknesses such as variation in mechanical properties, deterioration over time and high combustibility, etc, giving rise to safety concerns.”
Weak Enforcement
Local politicians have highlighted that many old buildings in the city are dilapidated and require improved fireproofing.
However, past fires have demonstrated poor compliance with government directives. In the 2024 Yau Ma Tei fire, the city’s Buildings Department had already issued fire safety orders to the building owners in 2008—including demands to replace fire doors and install more fire-resistant materials. Yet, reports confirmed that despite the department’s follow-up, the order remained unfulfilled.
Since that fire, legislators passed a law empowering the government to undertake fire safety improvement works and pursue building owners who fail to comply. But it is still reported that violations persist, such as public passageways being blocked by various items and smoke-stop doors being left open in composite and factory buildings.
The latest government data indicates that over 1,700 fire safety notices had been issued in Hong Kong as of January, following inspections of old, high-risk buildings. More than 300 of these notices led to prosecutions or convictions.