Hong Kong family returns to scene of deadly blaze to find 'everything vanished'

A married couple in their 70s who lost their apartment in a deadly Hong Kong blaze recounted on Wednesday how they were having afternoon tea in a nearby restaurant when their daughter alerted them to a fire at their residential complex.

The couple, surnamed Leung, rushed to the site of their home.

"It all happened within just an hour or two. I stood there watching as one block after another went up in flames — my legs felt so weak I could hardly stand," Mrs Leung said, choking up with tears.

"When I saw it, I felt completely helpless. I still don’t understand how the fire could spread so fiercely, devouring one building after another."

40 YEARS OF MEMORIES

Revisiting the site, the mother and her daughter, Bonnie, laid flowers and stood in silence at a memorial site close to the burned-out towers.

Gazing out at the destroyed buildings that had housed many of their fondest memories, both were overcome with grief.

"Everything I built over decades has vanished," Mrs Leung told Reuters moments later. "I was supposed to live out my later years there peacefully, spending free time with my husband walking along the waterfront park near our home. Those moments are all just memories now."

Leung, 71, and her 76-year-old husband had lived in Block  E of Wang Fuk Court for about 40 years before the fire struck. They had bought the 500 sq ft apartment second‑hand from Leung's younger sister for more than HK$1 million ($128,458).

When the building required major repairs costing HK$160,000, they managed to scrape together HK$140,000 and are now worried they may never get any of their money back.

'IT WAS TERRIFYING'

Pictures shared by their daughter Bonnie showed their living room, which they cherished for its serene atmosphere and the view from their balcony overlooking flowers they had planted.

Images and sounds of the catastrophe still haunt Leung one week after the disaster that has killed at least 159 people.

"It was terrifying," she said. "The bamboo scaffolding cracked and there was banging that sounded like exploding windows — the flames were completely out of control."

All residents of the Wang Fuk Court complex, numbering over 4,000, were displaced by the city's worst blaze in decades and many are now being put up in temporary housing.

Leung and her husband have decided to live with their eldest daughter, Bonnie's sister, after visiting the temporary housing provided by the government. For an elderly couple, they said, the temporary housing was just too far from the environment they were used to.

"The government must pay attention so disasters like this never happen again, leaving people like us with no one to turn to. I just hope that what happened to us can help those who are now going through building renovation issues — so no one else has to suffer the same pain," she said. ($1 = 7.7846 Hong Kong dollars)

-Joyce Zhou, Fabian Hamacher/Jessie Pang