Hundreds Rescued from Hong Kong Tower Rooftop After Fire Breaks Out

A fire broke out inside a 59-story Hong Kong commercial tower on Wednesday trapping hundreds of people on the building’s roof and balconies before firefighters successfully rescued all of the stranded fire victims and put out the blaze, Radio Television Hong Kong (HTHK) reported.

Local firefighters received reports about a fire at the Hong Kong World Trade Centre, one of the city’s most visited buildings, at about noon local time on December 15. The tower houses a shopping mall, offices, and restaurants and is located in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, which is one of the busiest shopping districts in the Asian metropolis.

Hong Kong government officials said the blaze was “largely put out” by 4:30 p.m. local time on December 15, or nearly four hours after it was first reported. The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) said the fire “forced the evacuation of 1,269 people from the building.”

Firefighters helped 770 people evacuate the tower according to Ng Yau Sheung, the Hong Kong Fire Services Department’s senior divisional officer. Most of the evacuees had managed to gather on the building’s rooftop where they waited for roughly three hours as firefighters used a bucket crane to retrieve them two at a time. A smaller group of fire victims waited on a narrow 5th-story balcony until they were similarly evacuated. Ng said 40 people successfully fled the burning tower “on their own.”

The Hong Kong Fire Services Department sent at least 13 evacuees to a local hospital for treatment after the rescue, including ten people who suffered from smoke inhalation and three people who experienced undisclosed injuries.

The Hong Kong World Trade Centre is currently undergoing renovations on its first two stories, where a shopping mall is normally located. A Wednesday report by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post cited the HKPF as saying its preliminary investigation into the blaze suggests the fire broke out “in the electrical switch room located on the first floor of the shopping mall, before spreading to the scaffolding that surrounded part of the building.”

Representatives of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department later confirmed that the fire started in the tower’s first-floor electrical switch room while speaking to reporters during a press conference on the evening of December 15.

“In a media briefing, firefighters said the blaze broke out on the first and second floors of the building, near the electrical meter room,” RTHK reported on Wednesday.

“They said it appeared the electrical wiring was involved in the blaze, but will investigate further,” the public broadcaster relayed.

Ng told reporters on December 15 a contractor hired to oversee renovations on the tower’s first and second floors had “turned off” the fire alert system in the building’s mall area “for the time being.”

“If the system is under repair, it’s possible that the contractor will shut down the area affected,” he said at Wednesday night’s press briefing.

Hong Kong government authorities told the Associated Press on December 15 they are currently investigating “whether fire safety regulations had been breached” by the contractor.

RTHK interviewed a woman on December 15 who said she works on a middle-story of the Hong Kong World Trade Centre and was in the tower when Wednesday’s fire broke out. The unidentified woman told RTHK “she and colleagues were originally told there was no need to evacuate.”

“At first we smelled something burning and called the management office,” she detailed.

“We were told that there’s no need to evacuate yet,” the woman revealed.

“But later my colleagues went down to find out more about the situation and said that there was thick smoke downstairs. So we evacuated through the fire escape staircase,” she said.