Nation rallies in grief, support after Hong Kong fire

Losses, survival

The fire reportedly started around 2:50 pm in one of the court's residential towers. The blaze quickly escalated and eventually spread to six adjacent buildings before being largely extinguished at 10:18 am on Friday.

The apartment complex of eight, 31-story buildings in Tai Po, near Hong Kong's boundary with the Chinese mainland, was built in the 1980s. It had almost 2,000 apartments and more than 4,600 residents. The complex had been undergoing a HK$330 million renovation work when the fire struck.

Survivors recounted loved ones' narrow escapes, while others told of tragedies.

"At 3:11 pm, I called my daughter and said: 'Fire! Get out!'" a mother surnamed Ng recounted, her voice hoarse from crying.

Ng, her hands trembling, said the last text she received from her daughter was at 3:25 pm, "then her phone went dead".

Ng was among the distraught survivors at the CCC Fung Leung Kit Memorial Secondary School on Thursday morning — one of 10 sites converted into temporary shelters citywide. The site is just over 100 meters from her charred home.

She had just reported her daughter was missing, but said she was determined to search every shelter and hospital in the city to try and find her.

At the school-turned-shelter, a man surnamed Lai took it upon himself to log the missing, organized by building names, floors and units.

A woman surnamed Ran, who arrived at the shelter with supplies, said her family home faced Wang Fuk Court across a small garden square.

"We were home at 2:55 pm, and that was when we noticed the smoke — flames right up to the sky — jumping from one building to another," she said.

"I looked at the fire, and then my children looked at me. We were terrified. Last night, fear kept me upstairs, but the distress of not doing anything left me restless.