On November 26, 2025, in Thai Po, Hong Kong, a fire broke out at the bottom of apartments under renovation. This fire affected 7 of 8 buildings of a complex. The one that wasn’t affected by the fire and is still intact is called Wang Chi House (Block H0).
This was one of the deadliest fires in Hong Kong in around 80 years. Within only a few hours of its start, the apartments were engulfed in an inferno that produced intense heat and thick black smoke for the next two days.
Residents said no alarms, signs of smoke, or burning smell were there to alert them in their homes about the situation, and get out before the fire got too dangerous to exit on their own.
Many ambulances, fire engines, and a lot of firefighters attended the scene as soon as possible. They drenched the fire down and got everything under control by December 27th.
These buildings were surrounded by netting in bamboo and green mesh. Foam and plastic materials were found later, in windows, on the building that was beside and wasn’t affected. These unsafe materials might be the cause of the fire spreading fast from building to building.
To avoid having another episode of burning homes, they decided to replace the bamboo scaffolding in the Asian financial hub with metal netting.
More than 150 people have died because of the fire, approximately 75 people have been injured, and around a dozen are still missing and might not be able to be found again by the police and firefighters. Furthermore, three men on suspicion of manslaughter over the fire were arrested at the very beginning when the police arrived.
For the residents who were living in the buildings, they have been given a fund of 300 million dollars. They were also moved to a shelter away from the fire in the meantime. Plus, six schools in Thai Po were closed on Thursday because of the dangerous situation.
Some might compare this fire to the one that happened in Montreal on March 16th, 2023. Even though the fire in Montreal was smaller and didn’t stand out as much, they were both believed by the police to be intentional and the fire scatter quickly in both situations.
The fire occurred very early in the morning of the 16th at the Place D’Youville. The fire spread fast in the building, the windows broke, and the smoke invaded rapidly inside.
The police believed it was intentional because they found the exit doors locked or doors with no handles on them, as if they had been removed on purpose.
