Large fire in a skyscraper under construction in Hong Kong: at least two injured

a virulent fire erupted Thursday night downtown hong kong. This is a skyscraper under construction located in the district of Kowloonone of the city’s main shopping areas facing Victoria Harbour.

As reported by the media South China Morning Postthe flames started around 11:10 p.m. on one of the bamboo scaffoldings and quickly spread to the floors and objects of the Middle Road building, considered a “port icon”.

So far, authorities have reported two injured who were transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Yau Ma Tei, although their condition was not disclosed. No deaths have been reported.

The facility was old sailors club at Tsim Sha Tsui, a sailors’ club, which had been demolished in 2018 and has since been under renovation by the company Empire Group in a job of more than $6 billion.

As the newspaper reports, the establishment, which dates from 1967, will be refurbished to become the Hotel, with 42 floors and 500 rooms. Inside the 340,000 square foot building will be the historic clubhouse. Its completion was initially planned for 2022 but, after this delay and the fire, it is not known when it will be ready.

Once completed, the group – chaired by Walter Kwok Ping-sheung – will manage the club for the first 50 years.

Images posted on social media show how the flames spread upstairs and took over the building. The firefighters tried to put them out and contain the situation which, for a moment, threatened to spread to the hotel five stars Sheraton and the office building Hermes House, located a few meters away.

Some were also heard explosions and they reported small fires at the Chung King Mansion on Nathan Road, the Far East Mansion and a shopping complex known as 26 Nathan Road, which were quickly extinguished.

On this street they found large pieces of rubble from work and a reporter from the news agency AFP present at the scene of the events, he assured that an acrid smell was perceptible which permeated the air.

The authorities gave this episode a alarm level 3according to the Hong Kong Fire Department’s severity scale, which ranks incidents on a scale of 1 to 5.

Likewise, they advised residents of the neighborhood to close the doors and windows of their residences and some were even evacuated as a precaution. For their part, those who wandered in the vicinity were asked to remain calm.

This episode follows a series of fires that were recently reported in Hong Kong. One of them took place in a industrial building In San Po Kong in January and firefighters had to work 10 hours to bring the flames under control.

On the other hand, a month earlier, in December, about a hundred people had to be evacuated after another fire broke out in a building on Dundas Street, in Mong Kok.

(With information from AFP and Europa Press)

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