a virulent fire broke out on Thursday night in downtown Hong Kong. It’s about a skyscraper under construction located in the neighborhood of Kowloonone of the city’s main shopping districts facing Victoria Harbour.
As reported by the media South China Morning Postthe flames began around 11:10 p.m. on one of the bamboo scaffolding and quickly spread to the floors and objects of the building on Middle Road, considered a “port icon.”
So far, the authorities have reported two injured who were transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Yau Ma Tei, although their state of health has not been disclosed. He was not aware of any fatalities.
The facility was old Mariner’s Club in Tsim Sha Tsui, a club for sailors, which had been demolished in 2018 and has since been undergoing refurbishment by the company Empire Group in a work of more than 6 billion dollars.
As reported by the newspaper, the establishment, which dates back to 1967, will be reconditioned to become the kimpton hotel, with 42 floors and 500 rooms. Inside the 340,000-square-foot building will be the historic club. Its completion was initially scheduled for 2022 but, after this delay and the fire, it is unknown when it will be ready.
Once the work is finished, the group – chaired by Walter Kwok Ping-sheung – will manage the club for the first 50 years.
The images spread on social networks show how the flames spread through the floors and took over the building. The fire brigade tried to extinguish them and contain the situation that, for a moment, threatened to spread to the hotel five star Sheraton and to the office block Hermes House, located a few meters.
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 that street they found large pieces of rubble from the work and a journalist from the news agency AFP present at the scene of the events, he assured that an acrid odor was perceptible that permeated the air.
Authorities gave this episode a alarm level 3following the severity scale of the Hong Kong Fire Department, which ranks incidents on a scale from 1 to 5.
Likewise, they advised the residents of the area to close the doors and windows of their residences and some were even evacuated for prevention. For their part, those who wandered in the vicinity were asked to remain calm.
This episode follows a series of fires that have been reported in Hong Kong of late. One of them took place in a industrial building in san pokong in January and firefighters had to work for 10 hours to control the flames.
On the other hand, a month earlier, in December, some 100 people had to be evacuated after another fire broke out in a building on Dundas Street, in mongkok.
(With information from AFP and Europa Press)
Keep reading:
Hong Kong government announced the end of the mandatory use of the mask
The sinister details of the crime of the model and influencer Abby Choi in Hong Kong: they accused the husband and his in-laws
Macabre murder in Hong Kong: they found a dismembered model after a dispute with her ex-husband’s family
Source-www.infobae.com