Hong Kong fire kills 44, hundreds missing as police blame 'gross negligence'

A huge fire still burning in a Hong Kong apartment complex that has killed at least 44 people and left nearly 300 missing may have been spread by unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used during maintenance work, police said on Thursday.

Working through the night, firefighters were struggling to reach residents potentially trapped on the upper floors of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex due to intense heat and thick smoke from the fire that erupted on Wednesday afternoon.

The tightly packed complex in the northern Tai Po district has 2,000 apartments in eight blocks that are home to more than 4,600 people in a city struggling with chronic shortages of affordable housing.

By Thursday morning, authorities said they had brought the fire in four blocks under control, with operations continuing in three blocks.

Video from the scene showed flames still leaping from at least two of the 32-storey towers sheathed in bamboo scaffolding and green construction mesh, as heavy smoke billowed into the sky.

Police said in addition to the buildings being covered with protective mesh sheets and plastic that may not meet fire standards, they discovered some windows on one unaffected building were sealed with a foam material, installed by a construction company carrying out maintenance work.

"We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties," Eileen Chung, a Hong Kong police superintendent, said.

Three men from the construction company, two directors and one engineering consultant, had been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over the fire, she added.

The green construction mesh and bamboo scaffolding used on the buildings are a mainstay of traditional Chinese architecture but have been subject to a phase-out in Hong Kong since March for safety reasons.

A firefighter was among the 44 killed, with 45 people in hospital in critical condition, Hong Kong police told a press conference before dawn on Thursday.

"The priority is to extinguish the fire and rescue the residents who are trapped," Hong Kong leader John Lee told reporters earlier. "The second is to support the injured. The third is to support and recover. Then, we'll launch a thorough investigation."

Some 279 people were uncontactable and 900 were in eight shelters, he added.

The death toll is now the highest in a Hong Kong fire since 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse blaze.

An online app showed missing persons reports submitted through a linked Google document that detailed residents of individual towers and rooms.

CHINA'S XI URGES 'ALL-OUT' EFFORT AGAINST FIRE

Many residents took to social media to criticise what they saw as negligence and cost cutting as a cause of the fire. One video showed several construction workers smoking on the bamboo scaffolding surrounding one of the complex's blocks during the renovation process.

From the mainland, China's President Xi Jinping urged an "all-out effort" to extinguish the fire and to minimise casualties and losses, China's state broadcaster CCTV said.

Hong Kong's Transport Department said that a number of roads would remain closed in the area on Thursday morning and 39 bus routes have been diverted.

At least six schools will be closed on Thursday due to the fire and traffic congestion, the city's Education Bureau said.