Some residents return for belongings a week after HK fire

Some Hong Kong residents forced to flee their homes as a deadly fire closed in a week ago returned to the scorched complex on Dec 3 to retrieve their belongings, as others struggled to rebuild lives after a disaster that killed at least 159 people.

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Carrying large suitcases and empty bags, residents of the only block in the complex not destroyed by the 40-hour inferno were escorted to their homes by government staff and given a 90-minute window to pack up their belongings. Seven other blocks were engulfed by the fire.

All residents of Wang Fuk Court complex, numbering more than 4,000, were displaced by the city’s worst blaze in decades and many are being put up in temporary housing.

The authorities have not said when residents of the unaffected building can return as they collect evidence in a criminal probe.

“My whole life is there,” said a 60-year-old woman surnamed Lam, who was waiting with recyclable bags for her daughter, before going into her apartment.

The police continue to scour the seven burnt-out buildings.