HONG KONG — Firefighters battled one of Hong Kong’s deadliest modern blazes for a second day Thursday, police said.The inferno, which killed at least 44 people and left almost 300 others missin, blackened several high-rise towers.
Thick smoke still poured out of the Wang Fuk Court complex in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near the border with the mainland, Thursday morning.
Police said the fire, which tore through the complex while maintenance work was underway, may have spread rapidly due to unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used on the buildings’ exterior.

The fire started on the external scaffolding of a 32-story tower, then spread on the bamboo scaffolding and construction netting to the inside of the building and then spread across seven of the complex’s eight buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.
Three men from the construction company responsible for the renovation have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter as rescue operations continue.
Working through the night, firefighters were struggling to reach residents potentially trapped on the upper floors 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, housing more than 4,600 people.
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-story towers, 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," said Eileen Chung, a Hong Kong police superintendent.
A firefighter was among the 44 killed, while 45 others are 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
Some 300 people were uncontactable and 900 were in eight shelters, he added.
One 71-year-old resident surnamed Wong broke down in tears, saying his wife was trapped inside.
Harry Cheung, 66, who has lived at Block Two in one of the complexes for more than 40 years, said he heard a loud noise about 2:45 p.m. (0645 GMT) and saw fire erupt in a nearby block.
"I immediately went back to pack up my things," he said.
Another long-time resident, a woman surnamed Chu, said she still had not been able to contact her friends who live in the next block. After staying over at a friend's place on Wednesday night, the 70-year-old came back to see her home still burning.
Many residents took to social media to criticize 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.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the firefighter who died and extended sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. He also urged efforts to minimize casualties and losses.
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.
Hong Kong's government moved to start phasing out bamboo scaffolding in March, citing worker safety after 22 deaths involving bamboo scaffolders between 2019 and 2024.
Though fire hazard was not cited as a reason for the phase-out, there have been at least three fires involving bamboo scaffolding this year, according to the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims in Hong Kong.
The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. In November 1996, 41 people died in a commercial building in Kowloon in a fire that lasted for around 20 hours.
Wang Fuk Court is one of many high-rise housing complexes in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Tai Po, located near the border with mainland China, is an established suburban district with some 300,000 residents.
Occupied since 1983, the complex is under the government's subsidised home ownership scheme, according to property agency websites. — Agencies