13 people killed in fire engulfing Hong Kong high-rise residential buildings, fire services say

HONG KONG — A fire spread across seven high-rise apartment buildings in a Hong Kong housing complex, killing 13 people and leaving others still trapped, in the city’s worst blaze in years.

Nine people were declared dead at the scene and four others who were sent to the hospital were later confirmed dead, authorities told reporters. At least 15 others were injured, and about 700 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters.

The raging fire sent up a column of flames and thick smoke as it spread quickly on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the exterior of the housing complex in Tai Po district, in the New Territories. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight buildings with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 people.

Multiple buildings close to each other were ablaze, with bright flames and smoke shooting out of many of the apartments’ windows as night fell. Authorities said that hundreds of firefighters, police officers and paramedics were deployed. Firefighters aimed water at the intense flames from high up on ladder trucks.

The blaze started mid-afternoon, and authorities upgraded it to a level 5 alarm, the highest level of severity, after nightfall, the Fire Services Department said. The blaze was still raging late into the night, and authorities said that conditions remained very challenging for firefighters.

“Debris and scaffolding of the affected buildings are falling down,” said Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy director of Fire Services (Operations). “The temperature inside the buildings concerned (is) very high. It’s difficult for us to enter the building and go upstairs to conduct firefighting and rescue operations.”

It wasn’t immediately known what caused the fire. Officials said that it started at the external scaffolding of one of the buildings and later spread to inside the building and also to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions. The department said that it received “numerous” calls requesting assistance and some residents remained trapped as of Wednesday night.

Firefighters deployed 128 fire trucks and 57 ambulances to the scene.

The dead included one firefighter and another was being treated for heat exhaustion, Fire Services Department Director Andy Yeung said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday expressed condolences to the firefighter who died and extended sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He also called on all efforts to minimize casualties and losses.

Lo Hiu-fung, a Taipo District Council member, told local TV station TVB earlier Wednesday that most of the residents trapped in the blaze were believed to be elderly people.

District officials in Tai Po have opened temporary shelters for people left homeless by the fire.

“I’ve given up thinking about my property,” a resident who only provided his surname, Wu, told TVB. “Watching it burn like that was really frustrating.”

Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects, though the government said earlier this year that it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.

The fire is the most deadly in Hong Kong in years. In November 1996, 41 people died in a commercial building in Kowloon in a fire that lasted for around 20 hours and also was classified as a level 5 alarm.