The death toll from the massive fire in the residential towers in Hong Kong rose overnight (between Thursday and Friday) to ninety-four people, and authorities reported that firefighting operations have concluded.

However, rescue teams on the ground continue searching in an effort to locate survivors in the ruins of the towers that went up in flames.

Nearly twenty-four hours after the disaster, teams rescued a man alive who was found in a stairwell on the sixteenth floor of one of the buildings.

The fire in the Hong Kong residential complex is the deadliest in the territory since nineteen forty-eight, when one hundred thirty-five people were killed.

One of the victims in the current fire is a firefighter.

Seventy-eight people were hospitalized, eleven of them firefighters.

Authorities reported yesterday that more than two hundred fifty people remain missing.

The complex, consisting of eight thirty-two-story towers, was home to about four thousand eight hundred residents—most of them elderly.

Among the residents who managed to flee, more than nine hundred are staying in temporary shelters.

Families of the missing are anxiously awaiting updates on the fate of their loved ones.

Derek Armstrong Chan, deputy head of the fire services, said firefighters found survivors in several towers—but as time passes, the likelihood of finding residents who survived the disaster diminishes.

Rescue teams in the disaster zone are moving with flashlights through the charred towers, going door to door in hopes of finding survivors.

“We expect to finish extinguishing the fire tonight,” Chan of the Hong Kong fire services said.

The fire broke out during renovation work taking place in the residential towers and spread rapidly due to bamboo scaffolding and plastic sheeting surrounding the buildings.

During the investigation, Hong Kong police arrested three managers from a construction company.

They are accused of manslaughter for failing to use safe materials in their work.

According to officials, the fire started in the scaffolding.

Police found the construction company’s name on flammable foam boards that were blocking several windows in the residential complex.

Officials added that they suspect other construction materials in the apartments, including safety netting, canvas fabric, and plastic coverings, did not meet safety standards.

Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world where bamboo scaffolding remains widely used.

In March this year, the government decided to begin phasing out the traditional scaffolding due to the safety risks it poses and announced that workers on at least fifty percent of public construction projects would be required to use metal scaffolding instead.

“We have reason to believe that the responsible parties at the company were severely negligent, which led to this accident and caused a fire that spread uncontrollably, resulting in many casualties,” Hong Kong police said.

About two thousand housing units are located in the eight towers.

Only one tower was not damaged by the fire.

Residents of the complex said they did not hear any fire alarms in the buildings.

“The fire spread so quickly,” one resident said.

“I saw how they tried to save several buildings with one hose—it was very slow.” He said that because no fire alarm sounded, residents leaving their apartments approached their neighbors.

“People rang doorbells, knocked on doors, warned neighbors, and told them to leave.”

Hong Kong, defined as a semi-autonomous region under its relationship with China, announced that Beijing would help it respond to the disaster in the Tai Po district in the northern part of the city and would provide, among other things, drones and medical supplies.