Around a dozen families who lost their loved ones in Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire have given their DNA samples to authorities, hoping to help identify victims still missing more than a week after the deadly blaze. Residents from Wang Fuk Court who visited the Kwong Fuk Community Hall near the estate on Monday morning…
An Indonesian domestic helper has recalled how she and her employer’s elderly parents huddled together in a smoke-filled bedroom for an agonising three hours, covering their noses with wet towels as they lay trapped while a deadly inferno engulfed a Hong Kong estate last month. The helper, who gave her name as Olive, recalled to…
The fire that tore through the Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po and killed at least 159 may have started on scaffolding between the first and second floors of one of the blocks, according to preliminary investigations by Hong Kong fire services. The city’s fire services director also said a life-size replica of…
Firefighters have described the gruelling conditions they faced in their search for survivors of Hong Kong’s worst fire in more than seven decades, with rescuers climbing dozens of flights of stairs as they conserved oxygen to look for anyone alive on the higher floors. For some firefighters, the operation has left them with feelings of…
Hazy air laced with a pungent odour, dark rooms filled with debris, bodies that had to be carefully extracted by hand. The discovery of a dead child. The head of the police team responsible for the search of the Hong Kong residential complex destroyed in an inferno gave an account on Wednesday of the harrowing…
Hazy air laced with a pungent odour, dark rooms filled with debris, bodies that had to be carefully extracted by hand. The discovery of a dead child. The head of the police team responsible for the search of the Hong Kong residential complex destroyed in an inferno gave an account on Wednesday of the harrowing…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. What we know so far: 156 people, including a firefighter, confirmed dead 79 injured, including 12 firefighters Status of about 30 people unclear…
Residents of the only tower left untouched by the deadly blaze that destroyed seven others at Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s Tai Po neighbourhood will be given 90 minutes on Wednesday and Thursday to collect their belongings. Civil servants will be on hand to help move their possessions, authorities have said. Amy Lam Man-han,…
The eight milk tea-coloured towers of Wang Fuk Court were special sentinels to many locals in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Residents say that whenever they saw the blocks emerging into view on the northern-bound left side of Tolo Highway on their daily commute after work, they knew they were back home. Home was their…
The eight milk tea-coloured towers of Wang Fuk Court were special sentinels to many locals in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Residents say that whenever they saw the blocks emerging into view on the northern-bound left side of Tolo Highway on their daily commute after work, they knew they were back home. Home was their…