Death toll from Hong Kong apartment fires rises to 83; arrests made

At least 83 people were confirmed dead Thursday, less than  24 hours after fires ripped through seven high-rise apartment buildings in Hong-Kong’s Tai Po district. An additional 76 people were injured, with more than 50 hospitalized as of Thursday, according to a report from The South China Morning Post. Officials at a Thursday news conference did not give an update on the number of people who remained missing, but during a news conference the previous day, they said more than 270 were unaccounted for, according to a BBC translation. 

Over 800 firefighters were battling the blaze on Wednesday, but they couldn’t reach some upper levels of the buildings due to high temperatures, according to the South China Morning Post. One firefighter, Ho Wai-ho, was among the dead, according to Hong Kong Fire Services. He collapsed at the scene after sustaining injuries and died at a nearby hospital, the agency said.

Any word on the cause? An official cause has not been released, but police arrested two directors and one engineering consultant from the company responsible for the Wang Fuk Court apartment project where the fire took place. They were arrested for manslaughter due to gross negligence causing death and serious injury, according to The Standard, a Hong Kong English-language media outlet. Authorities reportedly found foam boards covering windows throughout the project's seven high-rise buildings, material which they said was highly flammable. 

Dig deeper: Read Elizabeth Russell's original story on the fires.