A Hong Kong district officer has apologised for the clothing she wore at the funeral of the firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died battling the Tai Po blaze, after her choice of attire drew criticism from many online. In a social media post, the Home Affairs Department said that following Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades…
Hongkongers gathered on Friday to pay their last respects to the firefighter who died battling the Tai Po blaze, as his hearse passed the fire site and the fire station he had served in en route to the cemetery in Gallant Garden, in a funeral procession with full honours. The Fire Services Department held an…
Steel bars have been brought in to reinforce the structure of one of the fire-ravaged blocks in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong, while investigations into the catastrophic blaze are expected to go on for two to three weeks. The Post observed on Monday afternoon a crane lifting bundles of steel bars above…
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…