At least 128 people have died in a massive apartment fire in Hong Kong, and survivors' accounts are revealing the horror of the moment. The fire began on the 26th in seven buildings of the 32-story Wong Fuk Court complex and raged for 43 hours.
This disaster is the deadliest in Hong Kong in 77 years, since a warehouse fire in 1948 killed 176 people. The Hong Kong government declared an official three-day mourning period starting on the 29th and launched an investigation into the cause and those responsible.
On the 29th (local time), according to local media including the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and Hong Kong 01, William Lee, 40, who identified himself as a survivor of the blaze, shared his story on Facebook.
On the afternoon of the 26th, the day the fire broke out, Lee was resting at home when a call from his wife alerted him that the apartment was on fire. The moment he opened the front door to escape, he was trapped by dense smoke and heat so thick he could not see ahead.
The lobby was already engulfed in flames, making it impossible to reach the emergency exit. "I was trapped in a purgatory called home. All I could do was wait for rescue," Lee recalled, adding, "What suffocated me more than the thick smoke was the utter helplessness."
After briefly collecting himself, he grabbed a towel soaked in water to protect his body, but at that moment he heard someone calling from the hallway. Pushing through the smoke and feeling along the corridor wall, he found a couple and guided them to take shelter in his apartment.
He calmed the couple, sharing drinks and clothing, but from inside the apartment he could see black debris mixed with flames falling outside the window. "It was a rain of despair. It felt so brutal I could barely breathe," he recalled.
He continued, "I have long known that meetings and partings in life and the twists of fate are beyond control, but I believed at least my body was under my control. The flames shattered even that last sense of control," adding, "Never before had the philosophical question of 'to be or not to be' been placed before me so physically and so cruelly."
Just as he thought, "I will be trapped like this forever," he saw a faint moving light below the window. It was a rescue firefighter. He waved and shone a flashlight to signal for help, and he was spotted by rescuers about an hour after the fire started.
But it took another two hours to be actually rescued. "All I could do was just sit there," he recalled. "What was harder to endure than the thick smoke was the utter helplessness. All I could do was sit there."
He yielded his place in the rescue order to the couple first. While waiting inside, he thought about what to take—valuables, the children's toys, or his wife's favorite items—but in the end he left with nothing. "I could have grabbed more things, but I stood there and looked around at the chaos," he said. "It felt like saying goodbye to my home." He added, "I am grateful to the firefighters who risked their lives to rescue us."
He is currently receiving treatment at a hospital. "This fire made us realize how fragile we are and how fleeting life is," he wrote. "But the harder the times, the stronger the community becomes. Let's heal and rebuild together."
Meanwhile, the fire broke out around 2:51 p.m. on the 26th in seven buildings of the 32-story Wong Fuk Court complex in Tai Po, northern Hong Kong, and was fully extinguished after about 43 hours. As of now, the death toll stands at 128, including one firefighter, with 79 injured and about 200 missing.
After the disaster, the Hong Kong government designated a three-day official mourning period starting on the 29th. The Chinese five-star flag and Hong Kong flag were flown at half-staff at government offices, and all government-hosted or -sponsored performances and commemorative events were canceled or postponed.
Senior Hong Kong officials observed three minutes of silence starting at 8 a.m., and condolence sites and books of condolences were set up across the city. Britain's King Charles III also sent a message of condolence, saying he extends "deep sympathy to the victims and their families."
Authorities pointed to scaffolding (bamboo platforms) and Styrofoam exterior materials as the reason the flames spread so quickly. Chris Tang, secretary for security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said, "We believe a fire that started on the lower-level exterior netting spread rapidly upward along Styrofoam, affecting multiple floors," adding, "The high heat burned the bamboo scaffolding (temporary structures installed at high-rise construction sites) and protective netting, and falling, fire-damaged bamboo carried the flames to other floors."
Authorities immediately inspected 127 buildings in the city and found two cases where windows were covered with Styrofoam, ordering their immediate removal.
Police have arrested 11 people linked to the construction so far. After detaining three on the 27th, eight more were taken into custody, including employees of an engineering consulting firm and officials from a scaffolding subcontractor. The investigation is expanding to focus on shoddy construction, illegal use of exterior materials, and potential safety standard violations.