The fire tore through bamboo scaffolding, sending plumes of smoke into the night sky as emergency services rushed to the scene. Around 2,000 apartments are housed within these towers, and RTHK reports that several people remain trapped inside. Two people are in critical condition… pic.twitter.com/gswIcQvftr
— InfactoWeaver (@InfactoWeaver) November 26, 2025
THE SMELL OF TAI PO
You can taste it before you see it. That acrid, chemical sting at the back of your throat. It is the smell of melted plastic, scorched concrete, and a city's broken promise.
Tai Po is usually quiet. It is a place for families, for the old folks who built this city. But since Wednesday, it has been a graveyard. The Wang Fuk Court complex - huge towers that have stood since 1983 - is now a blackened skeleton.
The official count is 75 dead. Maybe 80. Hundreds are missing.
I have seen bad fires. I covered the grim days of the garley building fire years ago. But this? This is different. This was not an accident inside a room. This was the building itself eating its residents alive.
THE GREEN MONSTER
It started on Wednesday, just before 3 PM. A spark. That is all it takes when you wrap a 31-story building in kindling.a
Wang Fuk Court was under renovation. A 330 million HK dollar project. To fix it up, they wrapped the towers in bamboo scaffolding. Then they covered the bamboo in green netting and plastic sheeting. And to seal the windows? Polyurethane foam.
If you know fire, you know that foam is solid gasoline.
When the fire caught on Block F, it didn't just burn. It raced. It climbed the plastic and bamboo like a ladder. It moved so fast that the fire alarms inside - which survivors say never rang - would not have mattered anyway. The fire was outside, banging on the windows, melting the glass, and pouring into the living rooms of the elderly.
TRAPPED IN THE SKY
Wang Fuk Court is old. 40 percent of the people living there are over 65. They are the ones who cannot run down 30 flights of stairs in the dark.
I spoke to a woman named Ng. She was holding a graduation photo of her daughter. She was crying so hard she could barely stand. "She and her father are still not out," she told me.
She is not alone. The shelters are full of people with hollow eyes, waiting for a phone call that will never come.
We also lost a hero. Ho Wai Ho. A firefighter, 37 years old. He went in to save them. He lost contact with his team. He didn't come out.
THE BLAME GAME
Now comes the part I hate. The suits come out. They stand in front of cameras and use words like "unusual spread" and "gross negligence."
Police arrested three men from Prestige Construction. That is the firm doing the renovation. They raided the offices. They seized the papers.
Even the ICAC is involved. That is the anti-corruption squad. When the ICAC shows up, it means they think money changed hands under the table. It means they think someone paid a bribe to use cheap, flammable trash instead of safe materials.
Chief Executive John Lee is talking tough. He promised 10,000 HK dollars to affected units. He set up a task force. He is even talking about delaying the elections.
He blames the bamboo. He says, "We are phasing it out."
But that is a smokescreen. Bamboo has been used here for a hundred years. Bamboo does not melt into toxic sludge. The plastic does. The foam does.
THE BITTER TRUTH
Here is the thing that makes you want to punch a wall. The Labour Department inspected this site 16 times since last July. 16 times. The last time was November 20.
They looked at it and said, "This is fine."
And then, less than a month later, 75 people burned to death.
People are angry. You can see it online. You can hear it in the streets. They know that a renovation costing 330 million should not turn their homes into a death trap.
They are asking: Who signed the papers? Who bought the cheap foam? Who looked at those towers wrapped in plastic and decided it was safe?
You can see the anger right here: X Post by InfactoWeaver
ASHES AND ANSWERS
The fire is out, mostly. But the heat is just starting.
Hong Kong is a dense city. We live on top of each other. We trust that the walls won't catch fire. We trust that the government checks the work.
That trust burned down on Wednesday.
Now we wait for the body count to rise. We wait for the funerals. And we wait to see if the people in charge will actually fix the system, or if they will just blame a few contractors and go back to business as usual.
I am tired. But I am not looking away. Neither should you.