How the Hong Kong fire unfolded – visual guide

More than 100 people have died in a huge, multi-day fire that engulfed several residential tower blocks in Hong Kong, home to thousands of people. Many more are in a critical condition and about 200 are missing. The fire was first reported at 2.52pm local time (06.52 GMT) on Wednesday, at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories. Interactive Interactive The exact cause of the fire remains unknown, but officials say it started on the external scaffolding of Wang Cheong House before spreading to seven of the eight buildings on the densely packed site. Interactive As the fire raged, hundreds of people were evacuated from the complex of almost 2,000 apartments, which house about 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. A floorplan from one of the blocks gives an indication of the density of the living arrangements. Interactive About 200 fire trucks and more than 100 ambulances were deployed to the scene in the immediate aftermath of the fire breaking out. Firefighters worked through the night on Wednesday but struggled to reach the top floors of the 31-storey towers, where many people were thought to be trapped. A 37-year-old firefighter is known to be among the dead and 11 other firefighters were injured. Footage from Wednesday night showed the extent of the blaze. Interactive Interactive Aerial footage shows scale of the blaze Falling debris and the extreme heat of the blaze made it difficult for rescuers to access buildings. Officials said the complex had been undergoing maintenance. The fire was able to spread quickly across bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the buildings, as well as highly flammable polystyrene foam in elevators. Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is widely used for construction and the local government has moved to start phasing it out, citing worker safety after 22 deaths involving bamboo scaffolders between 2019 and 2024. From the mainland, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged authorities in Hong Kong to “make every effort” to extinguish the blaze and “offered sympathies to the families of the victims and those affected by the disaster”. Police said that in addition to buildings being covered with protective mesh sheets and plastic that allegedly did not meet fire standards, windows on one unaffected building were sealed with a foam material, installed by a construction company carrying out maintenance work. By Thursday, a number of apartments were still burning, although witnesses said the blaze had noticeably lowered in intensity. Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, said more than 900 people had sought refuge at temporary shelters. He said the government would set up a HK$300m ($38.6m, £29.2m) fund to help residents. Police have said the fire’s cause could have been a “grossly negligent” construction company using unsafe materials. On Friday, rescue operations were declared to be over. The head of the fire services, Andy Yeung, confirmed what many residents had been saying for days: that no fire alarms went off in any of the eight towers. “We will take enforcement actions against the contractors responsible,” he said. Officials said the fire was out but they needed to wait for the building to cool down before they could enter some areas, where temperatures were still upwards of 200C. They estimated it would take three to four weeks to collect evidence.