This is Hong Kong's deadliest fire in at least 63 years, with at least 65 people killed so far and 279 people still unaccounted for.
It has already matched the toll of the August 1962 inferno in the Sham Shui Po neighbourhood, which killed 50 people and left hundreds more homeless in the city. Around 50lbs (22.7kg) of fireworks stored on the premises had caused the blaze to spread quickly to the upper floors, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
In November 1996, a fire at the Garley Building in Kowloon killed 41 people and injured 81 others.
The deadliest blaze on record happened in 1948 following a ground-floor explosion at a five-storey warehouse containing "dangerous goods", according to SCMP. It killed 176 people.
Three construction company executives have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter connected to flammable materials, including mesh and plastic sheets, that may have allowed the fire to spread quickly
After 18 hours, officials said the fire was under control - it has been classified a level five blaze, the most serious level in Hong Kong.
A fire safety expert believes the large amount of bamboo scaffolding connecting the apartment blocks fanned last night's fire.
The blaze was able to penetrate rapidly, causing a large number of deaths and injuries, said Professor Jiang Liming from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Bamboo scaffolding is an iconic sight across Hong Kong and widely used in construction.
Earlier this year, authorities announced plans to phase out bamboo in favour of sturdier, fire-resistant steel. They cited bamboo combustibility and tendency to deteriorate over time.
Prof Jiang also noted that the blocks at Wang Fuk Court were "relatively old" - they were built in the 1980s - so "the the glass windows are not that fire resilient".
"The modern buildings have double pane glass windows, but for this one they perhaps used just a single pane... [which makes it] very easy to be broken by the flames and the flames can then penetrate through the facade," he told BBC News.
"I can smell it in the air", writes our correspondent Thursday morning, as large plumes of smoke hang over the burning buildings at Wang Fuk Court