UPDATE: Over 50 people die in Hong Kong residential fire

By Jessie Yeung, Karina Tsui, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — For half an hour as the fire grew and swallowed an adjacent building, Wan watched television in his home, unaware of the danger blazing his way. Even when he heard a commotion outside and sirens wailing in the distance, he brushed it as a typically loud afternoon in Hong Kong.

It was only when he heard people screaming for help that he got up to look out the window of his eighth-floor apartment. “The instant I opened the window, I saw the smoke,” he told CNN.

By then, it was 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday – 30 minutes after an eyewitness first noticed a blaze intensifying in one of eight residential towers making up the Wang Fuk Court public housing complex.

Firefighters had arrived on the scene, but the fire had already spread to other tower blocks, which were all under renovation and covered in bamboo scaffolding, a traditional construction material. Burnt poles were collapsing off the exteriors as flames raced up the 31-storey high-rises.

Wan, who CNN is identifying by his surname, grabbed his two dogs and his wallet, and fled down an emergency stairwell that smelled of gas. Just minutes after his evacuation, the fire was declared a Level 4 – the second-highest on a five-tier alarm ranking.

Throughout the next few hours, horrified onlookers watched as the complex – home to more than 4,000 people, many of them elderly – rapidly became engulfed in flames. People returning home from work and school stood with their briefcases and backpacks, staring at the flickering orange as daylight faded.

By nightfall, the scale of the devastation was becoming clear. Around 6 p.m. the fire was declared a maximum level 5 alarm. Community chat groups lit up as families desperately checked the whereabouts of loved ones. News channels broadcast images that sent shock waves through Hong Kong, a wealthy city with a strong track record on building safety.

As stunned residents grappled with the sheer speed of the fire’s spread – engulfing seven of the complex’s eight buildings within a matter of hours – they raised critical questions about whether this disaster could have been prevented, pointing to concerns over construction safety, silent fire alarms, and a pricey renovation project.

Three arrests have been made so far, with criminal and anticorruption probes launched as the government faces mounting public pressure to answer questions.

After spending the night at an emergency shelter, Wan and his wife were among hundreds of residents waiting desperately for news.

“There’s no home to go back to,” he told CNN from the sports center that had been converted into a shelter, as volunteers and staff walked around distributing food and drinks.

“We have nothing, not even clothes.”

Questions and probes

At least 55 people are known to have died in the blaze, the deadliest in decades in the city of some 7.5 million. Hundreds of others remain unaccounted for.

As residents endure an agonizing wait for news, some say there were early warning signs and pleas for action.

A Facebook group that describes itself as a community forum for Wang Fuk Court residents shows they had raised concerns about the construction netting material as early as last October – more than a year ago. Several posts include residents sharing what they said were complaints filed with the Labour Department about possible fire hazards; one post claimed the Labor Department issued a warning to contractors after surprise on-site inspections.

CNN has reached out to the Labour Department and the Housing Authority for comment. CNN has also tried contacting the construction company involved through several associated email addresses and phone numbers, but has not heard back.

Officials and police also say they suspect construction materials found at the apartments — including protective nets, canvas, and plastic covers — failed to meet safety standards. They also found polystyrene boards, a highly flammable material, blocking windows of multiple apartments – which Wan said he had noticed inside his building staircases before.

Other residents voiced concerns to CNN about the speed of evacuations and the reliability of their fire alarms. On Wednesday night, one resident who declined to be named said no authorities came knocking to tell her to evacuate when the fire began at a nearby block.

Another resident surnamed Au, aged 40, said his family had smelled fire and heard the sound of bamboo scaffolding burning and falling outside their walls – but their building alarm didn’t ring.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong’s statutory anti-graft body, announced on Thursday that it had set up a dedicated task force to investigate potential corruption linked to the renovations at Wang Fuk Court.

Separately, the city’s leader announced on Thursday that all housing estates undergoing significant renovations will be inspected for safety.

Vulnerable residents

The fire struck a neighborhood loved by many for its abundance of pedestrian streets, wide bike paths and nearby hiking trails.

Wang Fuk Court is part of government public housing – a program that aims to rent or sell affordable housing to low-income families at a steep discount.

Hong Kong is routinely ranked one of the world’s most expensive property markets, where a tiny apartment far from the city center can still eat up half of a monthly salary – making these public housing units deeply desirable. Demand is so high that apartment units often have waitlists that stretch for years.

As of 2024, nearly 45% of the city’s population lives in some form of public housing. That’s more than 3.3 million people, many of whom rely on this program to make ends meet.

Hundreds or thousands may now be left homeless after the fire, though the full extent of the damage is not yet clear.

Compounding the blow is the fact that many residents in the burned buildings are elderly – reflecting Hong Kong’s rapidly aging society as its fertility rate declines. The biggest age group in Wang Fuk Court are residents aged 65 and above, according to government and property agency data.

Wan and his wife are in their 40s, occupying an apartment originally bought by his parents. But, he said, most of his neighbors are far older. Among new buyers in the complex, the youngest are at least in their 60s, he said.

One resident surnamed Yuen said he was most concerned about his parents – who are in their 70s and live in a separate apartment on the same floor as him and his wife. On Wednesday afternoon, Yuen rushed home from work when he heard the news, but wasn’t allowed to enter the building, he said.

He hasn’t heard from his parents since.

Another evacuee told CNN on Wednesday he had just bought his apartment in March, after living in the neighborhood for decades. He spent eight months renovating the apartment, an endeavor that cost him the equivalent of thousands of US dollars. He was preparing to move in imminently.

Now, he said, “it’s all burnt.”

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