How the deadly Hong Kong inferno spread
Wang Fuk Court is one of many high-rise complexes in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Around 300,000 people live in the suburban district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China.
This is the first image at the beginning of a scrolly-telling component. It shows a satellite image and 3D buildings of the eight towers that make up the Wang Fuk Court complex in Tai Po, and it’s surrounding areas. It makes a slight V formation.
The complex has been occupied since 1983, and is managed under the government’s subsidised home ownership schemes. More than 4,600 people live in around 2,000 apartments in its eight blocks.
The same angle is now converted into an illustration that is a sketched pencil-drawing style of the same buildings and area.
Builders have been renovating the complex since July 2024. At the time of the blaze, each tower was surrounded by bamboo scaffolding and sheathed in green construction mesh.
A green mesh netting is now wrapped around each of the eight towers.
The fire started at the complex’s Wang Cheong House at around 2:51 p.m.
The first tower, at the top of the V formation, is shown with flames flowing up the tower.
It then spread to nearby Wang Tai House and Wang Shing House.
These flames are now shown on the towers on either side of the first tower.
It later spread to Wang Yan House. By 7.30pm, seven of the eight blocks were ablaze.
Finally, all the towers are set ablaze.
Finally, all the towers are set ablaze.
A huge fire that began on Wednesday, November 26, in a Hong Kong apartment complex has killed at least 94 people and left many missing. Police said on Thursday the blaze may have been caused by a “grossly negligent” construction firm using unsafe materials.
Police said the buildings were covered with protective mesh sheets and plastic that may not meet fire standards. They found that some windows in one of the buildings 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,” Eileen Chung, a Hong Kong police superintendent, said.
What fed the flames
The fire has highlighted Hong Kong’s risky use of flammable bamboo scaffolding and mesh for building work in a tradition dating back centuries to mainland China.
Bamboo - cheap, abundant, flexible and often bound with nylon cords - has long been the material of choice for scaffolding for the many skyscrapers and other buildings in the former British colony.
The bamboo lattices are also often used alongside green construction mesh to prevent debris from injuring passers-by. That was the case in the tower blocks at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex.
A vector diagram of one section of bamboo scaffolding, showing the installation of the green mesh and a window with white foam board.
Chinese builders have used bamboo since ancient times, and the material is traditionally seen as a symbol of grace and moral fortitude. According to some accounts, it was used for scaffolding and tools in the building of the Great Wall of China.
It has now been largely phased out in China and replaced by sturdier metal scaffolding and clamps. But Hong Kong, despite its modernity, still has around 2,500 registered bamboo scaffolding masters plying their trade, according to official figures.
The origin of the blaze is unclear, but flames spread rapidly across the green netting and sent bamboo lattices crashing to the ground.
Plastic foam boards and burnt green netting
Photos taken after the blaze show remnants of the burnt green mesh that covered the bamboo scaffolding which surrounded the towers. White plastic foam boards are also visible blocking most of the windows.
An image of roughly nine windows, across three floors. Each window has a white foam board blocking up the whole area and there small strips of green mesh hanging from the bamboo scaffolding which is mostly intact except for some signs of fire damage.
Eileen Chung, Senior Superintendent of the Hong Kong Police Force, said officers investigating an unaffected building at the scene found that the windows in elevator lobbies on every floor were sealed with foam material. She said they would not rule out the possibility that this material contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
White foam boards melted in fire
Although investigations are ongoing, photos show that some of the white foam boards in the windows caught alight or melted in the blaze.
This shows about three floors of the side of one of the apartment towers, with an active fire inside one of the apartments and lots of billowing grey smoke. The white foam boards can barely be seen and have melted, with just small remnants hanging from the edges of the window.
Battling the blaze day and night
By early Thursday morning, authorities said they had brought four blocks under control, with operations continuing in three blocks after more than 15 hours. Video from the scene showed flames still leaping from at least two of the 32-storey towers and heavy smoke billowing from several.
The blaze began in the afternoon of Wednesday, November 26.
The battle to contain the blaze continued overnight…
And well into the following day.
Timelapse of rescuers working overnight to bring down blaze that engulfed high-rise buildings in Hong Kong on November 26-27, 2025 REUTERS
Difficulty reaching upper floors
More than a third of the residents in Wang Fuk Court were older than 65, according to Midland Realty’s analysis of government data, and may have found it more difficult than others to flee the upper floors.
Rescuers were still struggling to reach the top levels of at least two buildings a day after the fire began due to the smoke and the high temperatures inside. Fire department deputy director Derek Armstrong Chan said the dangers and difficulties increased after dark.
The layout of the floors at Wang Fuk Court
A vector diagram of the layout of the towers of Wang Fuk Court. The eight towers make a V-formation with four towers on a diagonally left line behind the first tower, and two towers diagonally right. The last tower on the right was the least effected. The floor plans also show the lift lobby and stairwells, as well as other key features such as the living, bedrooms and kitchen areas.
The fire stirred memories of the Grenfell Tower inferno that killed 72 people in London in 2017. That blaze was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as on failings by the government and the construction industry.
“Our hearts go out to all those affected by the horrific fire in Hong Kong,” the Grenfell United survivors’ group said on social media. “To the families, friends and communities, we stand with you. You are not alone.”
It is now the deadliest fire in Hong Kong since 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse blaze.
Satellite image
Google © 2025 CNES/Airbus, Landsat/Copernicus, Maxar Technologies
Edited by
Andrew Heavens, Rebecca Pazos and Simon Scarr