LONDON — At least 36 people died and hundreds of people reported missing after a massive fire ripped through a residential apartment complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Wednesday, authorities said.
The fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court shortly before 3:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday and was raised to alarm number 5, city officials said.
The fire is now “gradually under control,” Hong Kong leader John Lee said during a news conference Thursday morning local time. He added that the director of fire services assured him that the department has sufficient personnel and resources to control and extinguish the fire.
Wong, 71, reacts as he says his wife was trapped inside the Wang Fuk court during a major fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 26, 2025.
Tyrone Siu/Reuters
People watch flames engulf a building after a fire broke out in Wang Fuk Court, a housing estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, on November 26, 2025.
Chan Long Hei/AP
At least 36 people died, according to Lee, as the death toll continued to rise in the hours since the fire started.
More than two dozen were injured, including many who were taken to two local hospitals, fire officials said.
Some 279 people have been reported missing, Lee said.
Firefighters work as efforts are made to extinguish flames engulfing bamboo scaffolding on several buildings at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 26, 2025.
Tyrone Siu/Reuters
One of the dead was a firefighter who had been called to the scene from the nearby Sha Tin fire station, according to Andy Yeung, director of Fire Services.
Yeung in a statement named the firefighter as Ho Wai-ho, 37, adding that he “was found collapsed at the scene” of the fire. He was rushed to the hospital, where he later died, Yeung said.
Thick smoke and flames rise as a large fire engulfs several apartment blocks in the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025.
Yan Zhao/AFP via Getty Images
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire that broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a housing estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, on November 26, 2025.
Chan Long Hei/AP
“The fire has caused many casualties, including a firefighter who died in the line of duty,” Lee said in an earlier statement posted on social media. “I express my deep sadness and deepest condolences to the families of the dead and injured.”
Security Secretary Tang Ping-keung said the fire department was “doing its best to put out the fire.”
More than 140 fire trucks and more than 800 firefighters and paramedics have been deployed to put out this fire, and drones are also being used, officials said.
An apartment burns in Tai Po in Hong Kong, China, on November 26, 2025.
Leung Man Hei/EPA/Shutterstock
Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims and those affected in a statement. He said he ordered authorities to “make every effort to ensure search and rescue operations, medical treatment of the injured and post-disaster relief, and provide necessary assistance to relevant departments and local authorities to minimize casualties and losses.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Karson Yu contributed to this report.
