OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
11:59 AM – Wednesday, November 26, 2025
A massive fire broke out on Wednesday at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, engulfing seven high-rise apartment buildings under renovation and sheathed in flammable bamboo scaffolding.
The blaze, Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in three decades, rapidly spread due to “the materials involved,” officials stated, leading to intense heat and smoke that hindered rescue efforts. The flames quickly spread over bamboo scaffolding and construction netting — as the building was under renovation.
However, no surfacing reports have stated what originally ignited the fire. Authorities have described the spread as “unusual” and “in a snap,” but the ignition point remains undetermined.
The Hong Kong government had already announced plans prior to phase out bamboo scaffolding on public projects over fire-safety concerns. Experts note that steel scaffolding, widely used elsewhere, offers a lighter yet robust alternative that is significantly quicker and safer to erect.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee confirmed in a press briefing early on Wednesday that at least 36 people had died, including one firefighter, with 29 others hospitalized and seven in critical condition. Additionally, at least 279 have since been reported missing.
A press release announced that the now-deceased firefighter, identified as “Ho Wai-ho from Sha Tin Fire Station,” was 37-years-old and had served for nine years.
Firefighters continued working through the night to extinguish the flames and search for survivors in the complex, which houses about 4,800 residents across nearly 2,000 apartments.
The housing complex is home to 4,600 people with nearly 2,000 apartments. About 700 people have evacuated to temporary shelters, and a help desk and hotline has also been set up for those affected.
In addition, former Tai Po district councilor Herman Yiu Kwan-ho told the South China Morning Post that at least 13 people — many of them elderly residents, including two infants — were trapped in the buildings, amid challenges from intense heat and smoke that delayed rescues.
Video footage captured firefighters battling the blaze with relentless determination, directing powerful streams from ladder-truck hoses even as flames leapt to adjacent towers. More than 180 fire engines and 57 ambulances were deployed to the scene in one of Hong Kong’s largest emergency responses in decades.
“I’ve given up thinking about my property,” said a resident who only gave his surname, Wu, to TVB. “Watching it burn like that was really frustrating.”
This fire has been classified as a level five — on a severity scale from one to five.
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, since July 1, 1997, when sovereignty was transferred from the United Kingdom back to China. However, it maintains its own separate legal, economic, and administrative systems, different from mainland China.
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