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Fire breaks out at Hong Kong skyscraper under construction in major shopping district
Safety checks at skyscraper after Hong Kong firefighters battle blaze for 9 hours in major shopping district Tsim Sha Tsui
- The blaze, which broke out at around 11pm on Thursday, was put out at 8.30am
- Fire was upgraded to No 4 alarm on five-point scale at 1.46am
Hong Kong authorities are checking the structural safety of an under-construction skyscraper and whether scaffolding is at risk of collapse after a huge blaze engulfed the building before being finally put out nine hours later on Friday morning.
Burning debris and flying embers from the 48-storey scaffold-covered tower, located on Middle Road in the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district, caused fires on balconies of a nearby hotel and at a commercial building.
The No 4 alarm blaze was the second recorded fire at the former Mariners’ Club construction site in half a year, with 50 workers forced to evacuate the location last September after low-level bamboo scaffolding caught fire.
Empire Group, which is building a hotel at the site, said in a statement that it was cooperating with “various investigations” by government departments and called on its main contractor, CR Construction Co, to manage the situation appropriately.
On Friday, flames lit up the night sky and could be seen from the other side of Victoria Harbour as the blaze was upgraded to a No 4 alarm fire on the one-to-five scale of seriousness at 1.46am.
About 170 residents were evacuated from nearby buildings and one bystander reported chest discomfort and was sent to hospital, police said.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Keung Sai-ming said a lack of proper fire safety equipment on the building site and the massive 60 metre (196 feet) by 80 metre area involved, as well as the dry and windy weather, ensured the blaze spread quickly and took a long time to put out.
“There are only some temporary fire safety devices for construction sites,” Keung said. “There were also lots of construction materials such as planks and metal rods obstructing our movement.”
The cause of the fire was still unknown, he said, adding the Fire Services Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Team would be dispatched “to assess any falling risk of the external wall of the construction site”.
In a Facebook post, the department said it had worked with the Buildings Department and deployed drones to inspect the structure of the exterior walls and to remove parts at risk of falling.
Authorities would establish a task force to investigate the cause of the blaze and study how to improve fire safety at construction sites, it added.
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The safety of other structures and machines on the site would be referred to other government departments for follow-up action, Keung said.
The blaze, which broke out at around 11pm on Thursday, was put out at 8.30am on Friday, according to the department. Around 250 firefighters and other rescue personnel were deployed in the operation. Two jets and three breathing apparatus teams were also mobilised.
Veteran structural engineer Ngai Hok-yan said he did not, at present, anticipate any immediate risk of the building collapsing.
“It is currently unclear whether it was the concrete or the steel structure that was damaged. An on-site inspection is needed … If the temperature wasn’t too high, then it shouldn’t place too much pressure on the steel structure,” he said.
The building’s current state made it more vulnerable to fire as many renovation materials such as wood boards, thinner, wallpapers and electric wires, while automatic fire suppression systems might not be fully installed, he explained.
“Renovation work is usually done from the lower levels, and those renovation materials are placed on the upper floors,” he added.
Ng Chui-ting, police divisional commander for Tsim Sha Tsui, said around 170 people were evacuated and 12 residents were moved to a temporary refuge in Yau Ma Tei.
On Friday morning, all lanes of Middle Road between Nathan Road and Salisbury Road were closed to traffic because of the fire.
Flames enveloped bamboo scaffolding around several floors of the building at around 12.35am as firefighters battled to contain the blaze. The flames on some floors became fiercer and explosions could also be heard.
No one was hurt in the fire, but a female employee, 33, who witnessed it from a nearby commercial building felt frightened and reported having chest discomfort, and was sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei for treatment.
A man named Cheng, in his 50s, who runs a kiosk selling snacks, cigarettes and newspapers in an alley two blocks from the building site, was on the night shift when the fire broke out.
“I heard people shout ‘Fire! Fire!’. Seconds after that debris fell down on the alley. The boxes I put on the side of the alley, which contained bottles of water, caught fire immediately. Luckily it was small and I could manage it,” Cheng said.
In the alley, large pieces of debris could still be seen and there were small holes in the boards Cheng used as a roof.
Burning material and sparks were earlier seen drifting around the area and at one point threatened to spread to the five-star Sheraton Hotel and Hermes House, a nearby office block.
The site is a redevelopment of the former Mariners’ Club, and completion was first scheduled for last year.
The club, for city and visiting sailors, opened in 1967, and was demolished in 2018.
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Property developer the Empire Group is building the 42-storey, 500-room Kimpton Hotel. The 340,000 sq ft building will also house the historic club.
The group, founded by the late Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, former chairman and chief executive of Sun Hung Kai Properties, will run the club for 50 years after the building opens for business.
The authorities received multiple calls about the fire at about 11.10pm. It was upgraded to a No 3 alarm fire at 11.37pm.
Additional reporting by Ezra Cheung
