Tong PingMoon said he first smelled smoke around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, and soon after, a firefighter banged on the door of his 10th floor apartment in Hong Kong to tell him a nearby building was on fire. Mr. Tong, 74, and his wife refused to evacuate then, thinking they would be all right, but the smoke soon got worse.

唐平满（音）说，最初是在周三下午约3点，他闻到了烟味。随后不久，一名消防员敲响了他位于10楼公寓的门，告知附近一栋建筑起火了。74岁的唐平满和妻子起初拒绝疏散，认为不会有危险，但烟雾很快变浓了。

The couple, residents of Wang Fuk Court in the city’s Tai Po district, then called for help and hid in the bathroom, using wet towels to cover their faces and guard against smoke coming through the gap under the door. They were rescued by firefighters around 6 p.m. and were staying at a school being used as a temporary shelter.

这对居住在香港大埔区宏福苑的夫妇随后拨打了求助电话，并躲进浴室，用湿毛巾捂住口鼻，防范从门缝渗入的浓烟。他们在晚上6点左右被消防员救出，目前暂住在一所作为临时庇护所的学校里。

“We were so lucky. It was pitch dark,” Mr. Tong said. “We wouldn’t have made it if we had to head out by ourselves.”

“我们太幸运了。当时漆黑一片，”唐平满说。“如果我们靠自己逃生，可能就没命了。”

The fire in Tai Po started in one high-rise building in the midafternoon, and residents recounted how quickly it spread, forcing many to flee or seek help from firefighters. An unknown number of residents were trapped in the burning building, the officials said.

大埔火灾始于周三下午，从一栋高层建筑开始，居民描述火势迅速蔓延，迫使许多人仓皇逃生或等待救援。官员们表示，目前仍有不明数量的居民被困在燃烧的大楼内。

一些居民在消防员的帮助下成功逃生。

Some of those who escaped stood outside around midnight, watching firefighters try to tame the inferno.

一些已逃离的居民午夜时分仍站在外面，注视着消防员与烈焰搏斗。

“How can I go to sleep while my home is being burned down?” said Sze Kam Sang, a retiree in his 70s, quietly clutching a small cotton blanket and watching the fire in the crowd. He has been living in Wang Fuk Court for about 40 years and was at a doctor’s appointment when he heard about the fire from his wife, who was working nearby.

“家都着火了，我怎么睡得着？”70多岁的退休人员施锦生（音）静静抱着一条小棉毯，在人群中注视火势。他在宏福苑住了约40年，火灾发生时正在看医生，当时在附近工作的妻子打电话告诉他这一消息。

He hoped the fire hadn’t wiped out his 19th-floor apartment yet. The lower floors were clearly ablaze.

他希望大火尚未吞没他位于19楼的公寓，楼下几层已火光冲天。

周四凌晨，大火仍在燃烧，距起火已近12小时。

Mr. Sze added that a few small fires had been reported over the years, but not on this scale. He said the building was undergoing its first major maintenance project in four decades. It was encased in bamboo scaffolding, which is commonly used in Hong Kong for construction projects.

施锦生说，这些年来小区也曾发生过几起小火，但从未达到如此规模。他透露，这栋楼正在进行40年来的首次大规模维修，外围搭满了香港建筑项目常用的竹脚手架。

Early Thursday, the fire was still burning through the 32-story apartment towers, sending smoke into the sky. The bamboo scaffolding cracked and burst with showers of sparks. Dozens of fire trucks and ambulances were parked, their lights blinking.

周四清晨，大火仍在吞噬这座32层高的公寓楼，浓烟直冲天际。竹脚手架噼啪作响，迸发出阵阵火花。现场停着数十辆消防车和救护车，警灯闪烁。

Lam Chi -Tong, a 71-year-old cleaner, was working in a police station near her home at Wang Fuk Court when she got a call from her son around 4 p.m. on Wednesday to tell her that a nearby building had caught fire. She hurried back to her complex, only to find that her building, along with others, was also ablaze.

71岁的清洁工林智彤（音）周三下午4点左右正在家附近的警察局工作，接到儿子电话告知附近建筑起火。她匆忙赶回小区，却发现自己居住的大楼以及其他几栋楼也已陷入火海。

“I’ve lived here for 30 years. I just want to sit here and watch,” she said with a sigh as the fire continued to burn into the night.

“我在这里住了30年，现在只想坐在一边看着，”她望着持续燃烧至深夜的大火，叹了口气。

建筑物被竹制脚手架包裹，这种脚手架在香港的建筑工程中很常见。