Hong Kong – At least four people have died and others remain trapped after a massive fire engulfed multiple high-rise towers of a residential complex in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district on Wednesday (Nov. 26), the government and Fire Services Department said.
Firefighters continued to battle the blaze as dusk fell, with thick black smoke billowing from the 31-storey towers, home to 2,000 residential apartments. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 people.
Five other people have been hospitalised. Three of the injured were in critical condition, one in serious condition and the other person was stable, a brief government statement said.
The dead included one firefighter, and another was being treated for heat exhaustion, Fire Services Department Director Andy Yeung told reporters.
Police said they had received multiple reports of people trapped in the affected buildings, but did not provide details.
Lo Hiu-fung, a Taipo District Council member, told local TV station TVB earlier on Wednesday that most of the residents trapped in the fire were believed to be elderly people.
Buildings surrounded by smoke and flames
People gathered on a nearby overhead walkway, watching in dismay as smoke billowed from the buildings, some of which were clad in bamboo scaffolding. Scores of fire engines and ambulances lined the road below the complex, according to Reuters witnesses.
The fire broke out in Wang Fuk Court, one of many high-rise housing complexes in Hong Kong, which is 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 a population of about 300,000.
Local television broadcaster TVB said the complex was undergoing major renovations. Wang Fuk Court is a complex under the government’s subsidised home ownership scheme. It has been occupied since 1983, according to the property’s website.
Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo is still widely used for scaffolding in construction. The government said earlier this year that it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.
The fire department said it received reports at 2.51 p.m. that a fire had broken out in Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. It was upgraded to a No. 4 alarm, the second highest, at 3.34 p.m. By nightfall, authorities upgraded the alarm to level 5, the highest level of severity.
District officials in Tai Po have opened temporary shelters for people left homeless by the fire.
“I’ve given up thinking about my property,” a resident who only provided his surname, Wu, told TVB. “Watching it burn like that was really frustrating.”
Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Hong Kong’s Transport Department said that due to the fire, an entire section of the Tai Po road, one of Hong Kong’s two main highways, has been closed and buses are being diverted.
Five people died after a fire broke out in a densely populated residential building in Hong Kong’s bustling Kowloon district in April last year.
CAPTIONS:
Top – Thick smoke and flames rise as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Nov 26, 2025. Photo: AFP/Yan Zhao and published by CNA
First insert – A man reacts, as smoke rises while flames engulf bamboo scaffolding across multiple buildings at Wang Fuk Court housing estate, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, on Nov. 26, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu and published by CNA
Second insert – Efforts are underway to extinguish flames engulfing bamboo scaffolding across multiple buildings at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, on Nov. 26, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu and published by CNA
Front Page – Flames engulf bamboo scaffolding across multiple buildings at Wang Fuk Court housing estate, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, on Nov. 26, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu and published by CNA
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