'Everything has vanished': Hong Kong family returns to scene of deadly blaze | ABS-CBN News

A married couple in their 70s, who lost their longtime home in Wang Fuk Court Block E – the hardest-hit building in Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades – returned to the charred site with their daughter on Wednesday (December 3), recounting how they watched helplessly as the housing complex was consumed by the raging inferno.

Revisiting the site, the 71-year-old woman surnamed Leung and her 41-year-old daughter Bonnie laid down flowers and stood in silence at one of the memorial sites close to the destroyed towers.

Gazing out at the now blackened building that had housed many of their fondest memories, both struggled to fight back tears, before finally turning away.

"Everything I built over decades has vanished," Leung said.

Leung and her 76-year-old husband had called their 500-square-foot flat in the housing complex home for about 40 years before the devastating fire struck last Wednesday (November 26).

Purchased as a second-hand property from her younger sister for over HK$1 million ($128,458), the 500-sq-ft apartment had been where Leung planned to peacefully spend her later years with her husband.

Pictures shared by their daughter Bonnie showed their home's living room and a view of the area from their balcony.

Reuters was able to confirm the location of the photos from the layout and design of the windows from file images. Buildings, roads and hills matched satellite images as well as confirmed by the resident. Reuters was not able to confirm the date of photos.

The death toll in Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades hit 159 on Wednesday, with police revealing that victims included an infant and a 97-year-old as they continued their search for remains in the burnt-out apartment complex.

Some 30 people are still missing.

Police have arrested 21 suspects for manslaughter in a probe into the cause of the fire, while Hong Kong's anti-corruption body is also investigating possible graft.

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 being put up in temporary housing.

Leung and her husband chose to live with their eldest daughter, after visiting the temporary housing provided by the government. For an elderly couple, they said, it was too far away from their accustomed environment.

"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," Leung said.

(Production: Joyce Zhou, Fabian Hamacher)

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