Hong Kong fire Under Control After Killing At Least 65

Hong Kong firefighters have brought a large fire in an apartment building under control. The fire killed at least 65 people and injured 70,officials said.

Police believe the fire may have started because a construction company didn’t use safe materials and was careless.

Rescuers worked for over a day to fight the intense heat and smoke and reach people who might have been trapped in the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex in Tai Po.

Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said the government will create a HK$300m (€33m) fund to help people affected by the fire. This was Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in 77 years.

Officials are also discussing replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal scaffolding throughout Hong Kong to improve safety.

The Wang Fuk Court complex has eight buildings with 2,000 apartments. More than 4,600 people live there. Hong Kong struggles to have enough affordable housing.

One woman, carrying her daughter’s graduation photo, searched for her child outside a shelter. Authorities said eight shelters are housing 900 residents.

“She and her father are still not out yet,” the 52-year-old woman said while crying. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”

Watch: firefighters at Scene of Deadly Hong Kong Blaze

police searched the offices of the building maintenance company responsible for the complex and took documents related to the building.

The government identified Prestige Construction and Engineering as the contractor for the complex. The company has not responded to requests for comment.

Police took bidding documents, a list of employees, 14 computers, and three mobile phones during a search of the Prestige office on Thursday, officials said.

“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were very careless, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread quickly, resulting in many injuries and deaths,” said Hong Kong police.