Necessities like water, food and clothes were distributed in Hong Kong on Thursday at a school which was sheltering residents after a housing complex caught fire a day earlier.

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades killed at least 44 people after a massive blaze started at Wang Fuk Court complex in Tai Po district on Wednesday.

The fire had spread across seven of the complex's eight buildings. At least 71 people were injured, many suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.

Authorities were investigating whether "flammable material" could have been "one of the causes" of the deadly fire.

Tse Kam-fai, a 70-year-old resident at Wang Fuk Court, said the fire was huge and looked like something out of a movie.

“It grew fiercer later on and engulfed our building,” he said, “The flames shot into the sky.”

The government designated the Church of Christ in China Fung Leung Kit Memorial Secondary School to accommodate evacuated residents.

Workers at the shelter were organizing water, food, clothes and other necessities for residents in need.

Tse said he evacuated the building yesterday, only taking his ID card. On Thursday, he was picking up medicine as well as some clothes at the shelter.

AP video shot by Chan Ho-him, produced by Shihuan Chen