The death toll from Hong Kong’s worst fire in its peacetime history has risen to at least 55, authorities say, with hundreds of others still unaccounted for. Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department confirmed the updated death toll on Thursday, a day after flames tore through an eight-building apartment estate in the northern part of the Chinese city.

Grief was not lonely today in Hong Kong. Three days after the worst fire in the history of modern Hong Kong, it feels as though it has barely sunk in. People came in droves to lay flowers, so many a queuing system was needed.

Toronto resident Paul Chow was devastated when the apartment where he grew up made international news this week after a raging inferno tore through seven highrise towers in Hong Kong, leaving more than 100 dead and hundreds missing.

Hong Kong’s history of reacting to calamities suggests this week’s fire which claimed at least 128 lives is likely to result in far-reaching policy changes.

Hong Kong on Wednesday witnessed one of the deadliest fires in its recent history after a massive blaze tore through an apartment complex in Tai Po, claiming at least 55 lives. Local media reported that 51 people were pronounced dead inside the Wang Fuk Court residential complex,

Residents of Wang Fuk Court apartments had raised concerns about flammable foam panels and scaffold netting, but the government did not take decisive action.

Some 200 residents of Wang Fuk Court were still unaccounted for as of Friday, with Secretary for Security Chris Tang saying at a briefing that officials couldn't rule out finding more bodies

This blaze was Hong Kong’s worst since the 1996 Kowloon commercial building fire that killed 41 people, and among the deadliest in the city’s history.