Three men have been arrested in connection with the horrific fire in Hong Kong that killed at least 36 people on Wednesday, officials said.
The men, who have not been publicly identified yet, were taken into custody under suspicion of manslaughter tied to the inferno in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district.
The city fell into chaos early Wednesday after a blaze began to engulf seven of the eight buildings in the district’s housing complex, with firefighters and first responders working around the clock to put out the flames and rescue hundreds of residents, many of whom are senior citizens.
Nearly 280 people remain missing.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Tong PingMoon, 74, and his wife were among those startled when the smell of smoke began to engulf their apartment complex on Wednesday, and the couple initially refused to evacuate because they thought the fire would be put out shortly.
Tong, however, came to regret his decision when dark smoke began entering his 10th-floor apartment building, forcing him and his wife to take refuge in a sealed bathroom for three hours before firefighters were able to rescue them, The New York Times reported.
“We were so lucky. It was pitch dark,” Tong said of the rescue inside the smoldering building.
“We wouldn’t have made it if we had to head out by ourselves.”
The Tongs and others in their building have been moved to a school to use as a temporary shelter, but many have opted to stay and watch as firefighters desperately fight to save their homes.
“I’ve lived here for 30 years. I just want to sit here and watch,” Lam Chi-Tong, 71, told The Times.
Jason Kong, a resident of Block One of the Tai Po complex, said he was desperately waiting to hear news about what happened to his dog and neighbors still trapped inside the burning building.
Kong told Reuters that police stopped him from entering the building to save his dog, and that he feared the worst for his pooch.
“I am devastated,” he said. “There are so many neighbours and friends. I do not know what is going on anymore… how should we deal with this?”
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Like other residents, Kong remains baffled by how quickly the fire was able to spread to six other buildings, with residents warned of the initial blaze at around 3 p.m. local time.
“It was spreading in a snap. I live in Block One. I thought the fire from Block Three would not spread so fast,” he explained.
As officials investigate the cause of the fire, they are also examining why it spread so quickly.
The city’s housing authorities are looking into whether the protective layers in the buildings were sufficiently fireproof, Hong Kong chief John Lee told reporters.
The Hong Kong complex was also notably surrounded by bamboo scaffolding — which is being phased out nationwide over safety reasons — amid ongoing construction.
The incident is reminiscent of the deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people.
In the British blaze, an official inquiry found that poor fire safety regulations and “dishonest” building companies left the 24-story building clad in combustible materials that created the perfect conditions for a tragedy.
With Post wires
