When a fatal fire tore through seven high-rise towers in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Wednesday, thousands of families were glued to a single webpage.<\/p>\n
The webpage displayed a grid of coloured squares, each square representing a flat inside Wang Fuk Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A red square meant residents inside were signalling SOS, or not responding, or had died. A green square flagged that the residents were safe.<\/p>\n
By Thursday morning, more than 100 squares on the grid had turned red.<\/p>\n
The grid also included entries on pets and the residents’ situations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The communal map was updated far more quickly than official government briefings. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Some of the entries were chilling.<\/p>\n
In one flat on the fourth floor of Tower F, an elderly woman in her 90s had stopped responding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In another flat on the 18th floor in Tower B, a young child was believed to be alone at home. And on one level above, nine cats and a dog were believed to be trapped inside.<\/p>\n
On the 27th floor of Tower E, one person was marked dead.<\/p>\n
The system was powered by a Google form, updated almost in real time by residents, neighbours and their families.<\/p>\n
Locals turned the spreadsheet into an interactive “SOS map”, which updated far more quickly than official government briefings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A man appeals for help as the blaze engulfs Wang Fuk Court. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)<\/p>\n
Families waiting outside the estate refreshed the page every few seconds, hoping to see a red square turn green.<\/p>\n
For many watching online from afar, it offered the only glimpse of what might be happening.<\/p>\n
A firefighter’s grief<\/p>\n
Among the thousands following the SOS map on Wednesday night was Raymond Cheung, a former Hong Kong firefighter who spent 18 years on the frontline before settling in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
For him, the growing sea of red squares felt painfully familiar.<\/p>\n
The former senior station officer in Hong Kong’s International Financial Centre said seeing the entries made his chest feel heavy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Cheung (second from the right), pictured with his former fire crew in Hong Kong, is deeply concerned about the fatal fire in the city’s north-eastern area. (Supplied: Raymond Cheung)<\/p>\n
With years of experience responding to major fires, he could picture the conditions inside the towers \u2014 the temperature, the smoke, and the dangers his former colleagues were facing.<\/p>\n
He also knew what the families waiting outside were going through.<\/p>\n
“It’s very hard to accept these numbers,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We know worse news may still come. But I hope everyone waiting to be rescued \u2014 and everyone doing the rescuing \u2014 can feel a bit more strength and encouragement.”<\/p>\n
Mr Cheung stayed up all night, endlessly refreshing the SOS webpage and a news website.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the scale of the incident was unlike anything he had seen in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
While fires have spread rapidly before, they were usually contained within a single block, he said.<\/p>\n
This time, seven towers were involved, affecting thousands of residents.<\/p>\n
As he watched footage of flames climbing the buildings, he thought about his former colleagues rushing up the stairwells.<\/p>\n
He worried for them, but also understood that danger had always been part of their job.<\/p>\n
Mr Cheung said the ingenuity of Hongkongers did not surprise him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During past emergencies, he had seen communities mobilise technologically within hours.<\/p>\n
“There’s a strong spirit of mutual support and innovation,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“People just use whatever skills they have \u2014 like IT professionals this time \u2014 to help find missing residents.”<\/p>\n
Why the blaze became unstoppable<\/p>\n
Flames engulfed the bamboo scaffolding across multiple buildings. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)<\/p>\n
Authorities say the fire is now the deadliest in Hong Kong in more than 60 years. The death toll has risen to at least 55 and hundreds remain unaccounted-for.<\/p>\n
The fire was classified as a level-five alarm \u2014 a designation not used in Hong Kong for 17 years. One firefighter, 37-year-old Ho Wai-ho, died in the rescue effort. Many more were injured.<\/p>\n
Fire crews have reached the 17th and 18th floors of most towers, but pockets of fire continue to burn inside four buildings.<\/p>\n
Early investigations point to a combination of factors.<\/p>\n
Firefighters discovered that the protective netting, waterproof tarpaulin and plastic sheets surrounding the scaffolding burned far more intensely than materials approved under safety regulations.<\/p>\n
Loading…<\/p>\n
Police have described the behaviour of these materials as unusual.<\/p>\n
Inside the one tower not directly burned, investigators found styrofoam panels glued to window frames, blocking ventilation openings.<\/p>\n
The material ignited easily and allowed flames and heat to travel through corridors and into units far from the original ignition point.<\/p>\n
Mr Cheung said bamboo scaffolding \u2014 long used in Hong Kong construction \u2014 can catch fire quickly, but cautioned against attributing the fire to the material alone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Charred bamboo scaffolding could be seen tumbling from the buildings. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)<\/p>\n
He said any breach of construction safety regulations could have contributed to the spread, and investigators will need time to determine what went wrong.<\/p>\n
He added that a 31-storey tower was considered modest by local standards in one of the world’s most densely populated cities.<\/p>\n
“Hong Kong’s firefighting system is highly developed, with extensive experience responding to fires in densely populated residential towers.”<\/p>\n
Beijing confirmed that President Xi Jinping was briefed and had immediately instructed Chinese authorities to support Hong Kong’s rescue, medical and recovery operations.<\/p>\n
Residents in the neighbouring city of Shenzhen also reported seeing large numbers of fire trucks and medical teams rushing to the border checkpoint, standing by to provide support.<\/p>\n
Many in the diaspora ‘couldn’t sleep’<\/p>\n
Jane Poon from Australia\u2013Hong Kong Link said the fire dominated community chat groups as soon as the first images appeared.<\/p>\n
Ms Poon, who once lived near the seven towers in Tai Po, said the sense of helplessness grew as flames engulfed the towers.<\/p>\n
“Everyone became very worried,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before moving to Australia, Ms Poon used to live near the seven towers. (ABC News: Samuel Yang)<\/p>\n
“The whole building was on fire in no time. Many Hongkongers living in Australia couldn’t sleep.”<\/p>\n
In a statement from her organisation, Ms Poon and her colleagues expressed solidarity with families in Hong Kong and around the world.<\/p>\n
They called on authorities for truth, accountability, and a fully transparent investigation of how the disaster unfolded.<\/p>\n
Mr Cheung said the fire also took an emotional toll on the diaspora, who hoped the tally of red squares on the SOS map did not spread further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a fatal fire tore through seven high-rise towers in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Wednesday, thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-312220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}