I'll put the final death toll at 150-180. "Missing" have even odds of not being at home.

I don't know how firefighters even hope to put something like that out. You can't reach the higher floors with water from the ground, it doesn't seem like there was any sort of sprinkler system in the building. Would they go in from the ground floor and just work their way up one level at a time?

Scaffolding was set up for renovations and the fire was able to spread quickly by bypassing all the fire breaks that are built into high rises and shooting up the outside. Hong Kong is unique in its use of bamboo scaffolding, which is obviously more flammable than steel.

Everything about this sounds atrocious.

Oh that death toll is going to rise dramatically as 279 are reported missing.

Oh and just while writing it I saw another headline saying 44 dead 279 missing.

Do we know anything about these people? Not names or anything but were they residents? Contractors? Employees? Randoms who just wanted to kill?