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Horror apartment fire incident in Tai Po neighborhood,
Hong Kong
on Wednesday (26/11) at 14.51 local time, hundreds of people were killed and 279 people were missing.
A total of 11 Indonesian citizens (WNI) were reported missing, and around 79 people were injured, including 11 firefighters.
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Firefighters were trying to reach people trapped inside after the fire burned for more than 24 hours
On Thursday (27/11) morning, officials said they had the fires in four buildings under control, but firefighters were still trying to extinguish flames in three other buildings for more than 16 hours.
Launching the site
Al Jazeera
, a fire in a Hong Kong apartment complex started on bamboo scaffolding outside the building.This scaffolding is made of bamboo poles which are used by workers during repairs.
Scaffolding materials are flammable and once the scaffolding caught fire, the fire quickly spread throughout the structure and into the building, where it spread to others.
During repairs, the blocks were also wrapped in green construction tissue up to the roof and caught fire.
According to local media, the fire escalated rapidly at 3.30pm local time, with the fire alarm reaching level four.At 6.22 pm local time, it rose to level five.
A fire with a level five alarm is the highest and deadliest alert level in more than 100 years in Hong Kong.
A large fire incident occurred at Wang Fuk Court, in a complex in the Tai Po district, Hong Kong, where the complex was built in 1983 and consists of eight high-rise buildings with around 1,984 apartment units.
According to local media, seven buildings experienced fires and four of them have been successfully extinguished.
Tai Po is a suburban area of Hong Kong that borders mainland China, and is home to around 300,000 residents.
According to the 2021 census, nearly 40 percent of the 4,600 people in the apartments are elderly or aged 65 years and over.
When the fire broke out, the survivors did not hear the fire alarm, so they knocked on the doors one by one to warn people.
“Pressing the doorbell, knocking on the door, telling the neighbors, telling them to leave, that’s the situation,” said one of the survivors, Suen.
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The fire spread quickly because it started from bamboo scaffolding around the building and layers of green netting covering the blocks.
Both objects had flammable materials, so the fire quickly spread to the outside of the tower and reached many floors.
Remnants of the burning pieces fell and burned several nearby buildings within minutes.
Coupled with the wind and an open area due to the renovation process, this is likely to cause the fire to grow more quickly.
Police also said they found flammable netting and protective material on the exterior of the building, as well as polystyrene foam material on the windows.
How many people were killed or missing?
Local authorities confirmed the death toll reached 94 people, including 37-year-old firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who worked at Sha Tin Fire Station.
Ho was trying to extinguish the fire on the ground floor at 15.30 local time, but he lost contact with his team and was found unconscious at the scene.
He was immediately rushed to Prince of Wales Hospital, but he was declared dead at 16.41 local time.
According to the Indonesian consulate general in Hong Kong, at least two Indonesian migrant workers died in the devastating fire, and two others were injured.
Interim reports indicate that around 76 people were reported injured, including 10 firefighters, and as many as 279 residents were unaccounted for.
At least four people died in hospital and around 900 people have taken refuge in community centers.
How do fires spread quickly?
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