The smell of dampness permeates the air hundreds of meters away. The calls are heard on the upper floors of two buildings. In front of the blackened buildings of Wang Fook Court, the residential complex of 1,984 houses divided into eight 31-storey towers that burned down in Hong Kong, elderly people, volunteers and the curious gather around police stations. Monitoring the arrival and departure of emergency equipment that continues for more than 24 hours after the start of a fire, working without rest to cool structures and locate missing persons.
The last tally published by the Bomberos administration, in the middle of the month (local time, 17.00 July in the Spanish Peninsula), amounts to 83 deceased, 76 inherited. Authorities also reported about 280 people missing, although that number had not been updated since the night before. It is the deadliest fire in the former British colony and now an autonomous region of China in about 80 years.
Hayley Chow, 19, was eating lunch at university when she received the news that the urban blockade was on fire. “I immediately took a taxi and got there within 10 minutes. The fire was really terrifying,” El País reported from the Fung Leung Kit Institute, which is linked to the Church of Christ in China and is being used as a temporary shelter for those affected by the fire. Along the way, Hayley called her mother, who was at home where she lived with her father and aunt. “I just heard screaming and noise, and I thought something was falling,” he describes. After a few seconds, the call was cut off. It has been 32 hours since then, but there is no news from her.
The magnitude of what happened is measured on the faces of those people who are still waiting for information. Many people wait with lost gazes fixed on the charred facades. They are among those who repeatedly approach to ask volunteers and staff if there is news. The environment is stressful, quiet and tense. He learned of people gathering outside the Cuong Phuoc Civic Centre, which has been converted into an aid point. Groups of volunteers are sharing water bottles, hot food boxes, blankets, masks and other essential products that can keep waiting, by hand.
Hayley guessed from the news that her 70-year-old attacker had been evacuated. He was identified in several photos published by the local press, where he was seen on Camila entering an ambulance and receiving oxygen. However, the location of the teenager in the hospital where she is being treated has not yet been determined. “It appears from the pictures that it is not inherited. In fact, the label indicates that it was a third-class evacuee, which is not the most serious case,” he comments on this memoir. He adds: “I think she is not registered because her identity document bears my identity.” The fourth tenant of the villa is also safe: he makes purchases when the calls come. “We are very worried, but seeing Abuela on the front page of the periodicals reassures us,” says Hayley, keeping her composure.
Wang Fook Court, a government-subsidized housing complex inhabited since 1983, has been under construction since 2024. The facades of its block are covered with bamboo scaffolding and surrounded by green bags, which turned into gerons behind the progress of the fire, which seriously affected the house. Of buildings. This exterior assembly, coupled with the use of polystyrene foam (a highly flammable material) in the renovation work, allowed the fire to escalate unusually quickly and move from one building to another, according to the authorities’ first conclusions.
Protest against flammable materials
“My father knew for many years that these materials were flammable,” laments James W., 38. He confirms that “the green bag burned in seconds.” James is the son of the man who was filmed in the first minutes of the fire while calling for help, a moment that gave him a trip around the world and became the image of the tragedy. Like other testimonies with those who were able to speak to this patrol, James criticizes that they did not sound fire alarms. His mother is still missing, even though the bombers tracked down the factory where the family has lived for more than 30 years: “It’s the 16th floor. I couldn’t have jumped out of there.”
The urban renewal project has been underway since 2016, after authorities ordered an inspection of the complex due to its age. Although the blocks caused structural and facade problems, some of the complex’s 4,600 residents considered the building plan, worth HK$330 million (about 36.6 million euros), excessive. The reform was expected to be completed in the middle of next year.
The government launched several criminal investigations to clarify the source of the fire and determine responsibilities. The police arrested a manager and a consultant from the responsible company, Prestige Engineering Construction, on charges of negligence, after unlicensed materials were found in the buildings. In parallel, the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission is trying to find out whether there were illegal practices or decisions that contributed to the spread of the fire.
Wang Fook Court is located in Tai Po District, which has a population of 327,000 and is adjacent to mainland China. It is one of the quietest and greenest areas of the New Territories, the vast fringe that occupies most of Hong Kong. There, working-class families who have lived for decades together in the same public houses live with young people marrying in who have found fairly affordable housing compared to the city centre. In the buildings there are clerks and workshop staff who travel to the financial district every day and migrant workers (mostly Filipinos and Indonesians) who take care of the elderly or children of local families. It’s a neighborhood where life is a little slower than it is on the other side of the harbour.
“It’s a tragedy, the worst fire ever remembered,” says Senor Angus Chan, a Cantonese opera performer, near the burning complex. This is the deadliest fire since at least 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse. Before that, in 1918, more than 600 citizens died when Happy Valley Race Track burned. The last major fire recorded in the area was in 1996, when the Jarley Building burned down, killing 39 people.