At least five people were killed and dozens more were injured in Hong Kong yesterday after a fire broke out in an old residential building in one of the territory’s most densely populated districts.
Authorities said 41 people were injured and about 300 more were evacuated after the blaze began at the 13-story building in the city’s Yau Ma Tei neighborhood in Kowloon shortly after 7:53am.
Hundreds of firefighters put out the fire at the 60-year-old building after several hours rescuing 250 people, with 50 more evacuating themselves, local fire department official Lam Kin-kwan told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
Among the injured were 38 hospitalized with burns and inhalation injuries, assistant chief ambulance officer Tong Sze-ho said.
Local broadcasters showed images of some residents waving towels from their windows to appeal for help while others rushed to the building’s rooftop.
Lam said the fire started outside a fitness center on the first floor and quickly began to spread to the upper floor.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths and injuries, and extended his condolences to the affected families.
Hong Kong has some of the world’s most densely populated — and tallest — apartment blocks. Deadly fires used to be a regular scourge, especially in poorer neighborhoods. However, in recent decades safety measures have been ramped up and such fires have become much less commonplace.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS