Updated November 26, 2025 at 5:41 PM EST
A massive fire tore through a high-rise housing complex in Hong Kong on Wednesday, in one of the region's deadliest blazes in decades.
Hong Kong authorities say at least 44 people have died in the fire and 279 people are still missing.
At least one of the dead is a firefighter who was combating the blaze.
Police said they have arrested three men for alleged manslaughter in connection with the fire.
The Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong's Tai Po district is a cluster of eight public housing towers and home to about 4,600 people in total, according to a 2021 census.
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, making it difficult to extinguish large fires, which can spread easily from building to building.
Because of the blaze, several adjacent roads were shut down, along with about 30 bus routes which were diverted away from the fire. The fire also spread from the housing complex to the nearby Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School about 500 yards away.
About 1,000 of the surviving residents are being housed in community shelters. Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee said the city's police and fire services department had already set up a team to investigate the cause of the fire.
China's leader Xi Jinping sent condolences to the families of the victims.
Built in 1983, the Wang Fuk Court complex had been due for renovations, and its towers had been encased with bamboo scaffolding, a traditional building material, when the fire broke out.
Last year, Hong Kong's government began phasing out bamboo in scaffolding material and replacing it with steel, arguing that metal posed less of a fire hazard.
Copyright 2025 NPR
