By Hans Tse & Kelly Ho
Idy Yip has been living with her cousin in another district since a deadly fire engulfed Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, home to her and her husband for almost 13 years, a month ago.
Whenever the 77-year-old returned to Tai Po Market for grocery shopping, seeing the now-charred Wang Fuk Court would at times make her break down in tears.
The massive fire that tore through the Tai Po housing complex on November 26 killed at least 161 people – Hong Kong’s deadliest in nearly eight decades. Yip lost not only her home but also her husband and their two dogs, as well as some longtime friends and neighbours.
“It was really a disaster of the century,” Yip told HKFP in Cantonese outside a secondary school next to Wang Fuk Court, where the government had set up an emergency shelter to support displaced residents, three days after the fire.
That day, she visited the shelter with her cousin, Annie, as she tried to navigate the complex process of applying for temporary housing and other forms of relief support.
In a matter of hours, she lost her “home, everything,” she recalled, trembling. “Seven blocks were ablaze… Almost 2,000 families have been displaced, homeless, bereaved.”
Idy Yip’s story is likely one too familiar for thousands of Wang Fuk Court residents who survived the fire. One month after the fire, they are still reeling from the psychological trauma of losing their homes and loved ones while struggling to adapt to life amidst displacement and bereavement.
Interviews with multiple residents, homeowners, volunteers and mourners in the month following the blaze show how a community has been left scarred by the disaster. The government and members of the public are scrambling to help the survivors with housing and financial needs.
However, many survivors are still clueless about what lies ahead after living in the subsidised housing estate for decades.
“I can only wait for the government to announce” any plans for resettlement, Wang Fuk Court resident Rowena Li, 69, told HKFP in early December. “For us, there is no way to talk about the future. We can only wait and see what [the government] proposes.”
See also: Tai Po fire timeline: Wang Fuk Court’s HK$330 million renovation, ignored warnings and aftermath
Some, like Yip, said outpouring support from families, the community, and the government had been vital for them to survive the tragedy in the past month. However, the road to normalcy remains long and challenging.
The first interview with Yip on the afternoon of November 29 was brief. The retiree, who escaped the deadly fire because she was out playing badminton, was visibly emotional.
Almost three weeks later, when HKFP reached out to Yip again, she had been given a temporary unit in Kai Tak and had started seeing a psychologist.
But Yip said she was not ready to move into temporary housing yet, still preferring to stay with Annie and her cousin’s family in Sha Tin.
“When you suddenly lose your loved ones and have to start living on your own, it is really frightening,” she told HKFP on the phone.
“You will have to live in an apartment alone, facing the walls and whatever life throws at you, with no one on your side. You will have to shoulder it all by yourself,” she said.
“The pressure and the hardship… I am not ready for that yet.”
Home for over 4 decades
Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate, was completed in 1983, allowing families with little financial means to own a home. Located next to Tolo Harbour, the estate’s 31-storey residential towers stand out as the first sight of Tai Po for anyone arriving at the district by train or highway.
More than a third of around 4,600 Wang Fuk Court residents are over 65 years old, according to the 2021 census, with many having lived there for over four decades, since the estate first opened.
Rowena Li moved into Wang Fuk Court in 1983 after she got married at the age of 27. She still cherishes the memories of her first day at the estate.
“When you opened the door with your keys, it was a really happy feeling, because we used to live in a tiny flat,” she recalled. “Seeing [the new home]… it was so pleasant. It was like, ‘We finally have a home, a home that is safe and relaxing.’”
She and her husband raised their children in the 400-odd-square-foot flat at Wang Sun House. After the children got married and moved out, Li said her apartment had become “very comfortable.”
“There were only the two of us. We could have our own room, and it was great,” the 69-year-old said. But then the fire broke out in late November and, for the next 43 hours, the flames engulfed seven of Wang Fuk Court’s eight blocks, including Wang Sun House.
The couple were having lunch in Tai Po Market when a colleague called to inform them about the fire. She then called her neighbours on the same floor, telling them to escape and also to alert others.
Eventually, all residents on her floor managed to reach safety, she said. Wang Sun House was severely torched, but casualties were relatively limited. Authorities found three bodies in the building after the fire.
The couple have been given a transitional public housing unit in Tin Wan, Aberdeen, but they have yet to move into the newly built, unfurnished apartment. Over the past month, they have been staying with relatives while furnishing their Tin Wan flat “piece by piece,” she said.
The new apartment would not be comparable in size to the one in Wang Sun House, she said, but she would hardly complain about it.
She considered herself luckier than others. “For me, I lost my home. But some have lost family members. For others, the entire family may have perished,” said Li.
Narrow escape
At 2.51pm on November 26, authorities received a report that a fire had started at Wang Fuk Court. At that time, all eight buildings of the housing complex were undergoing a major renovation that began in July 2024 and were encased in bamboo scaffolding and construction netting.
Winky Li’s elderly mother was among those living in Wang Cheong House – the first building that went ablaze. The mother narrowly escaped the fire, thanks to a neighbour who knocked on her door at around 3pm after noticing a burning smell.
Unable to check what was happening outside because most of the flat’s windows were blocked by foam boards, the 72-year-old quickly put on trainers, grabbed some personal belongings, and went downstairs in a lift.
At 3.05pm, Winky Li received eight photos from her mother on WhatsApp showing fire trucks parked outside her childhood home. Flames moved quickly upwards, sending dark smoke billowing into the sky.
“It was only after she went downstairs that she realised she had narrowly escaped death,” Winky Li recalled during a phone interview with HKFP on December 5.
Yip’s home at Wang Tai House – which saw the highest number of casualties, with at least 82 bodies found – also had its windows covered by foam boards.
“There was literally not a beam of light inside our room,” Yip said. She believed more people could have made it out to safety if their windows had not been sealed by foam boards.
The boards were put up by the renovation contractor, Prestige Construction & Engineering, which told residents the materials would prevent construction debris from breaking their windows. However, the government’s investigation later revealed that the foam boards, as well as the construction netting, were flammable and suggested that they had contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.
Executives at Prestige Construction and Will Power Architects – the consultancy firm overseeing Wang Fuk Court’s renovation – are among at least a dozen arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and corruption.
‘Don’t want people to forget’
After learning about the blaze, Winky Li rushed to the scene to find her mother standing among neighbours, watching the blocks catch fire one by one.
Witnessing her childhood home engulfed by flames and thousands of residents displaced, the 40-year-old was outraged. She suspects malpractice in the renovation and questions the government’s supervision of the firms responsible for fire safety, property management, and the renovation consultancy.
“Sometimes I feel really angry… We know that these firms are all for profit. There is a lot of malpractice. If the government had better supervision, could this whole incident have been avoided?” she asked.
The government has since set up an independent committee, chaired by Judge David Lok, to investigate the deadly Tai Po blaze. The investigation is expected to be completed within nine months.
See also: Tai Po fire: Domestic workers pick up the pieces amid emotional trauma, job loss
Critics and the media have questioned whether the committee will yield meaningful findings, as it lacks the power to compel witnesses and evidence – unlike a commission of inquiry, a statutory body established under the Commissions of Inquiry Ordinance.
But Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee vowed that the findings would encompass the disaster’s circumstances, the adequacy of fire safety equipment and measures, the supervision and accountability of the operation, and construction standards and materials.
It will also look into the roles and responsibilities of regulatory bodies and personnel, including government officials, professionals, and contractors, he said on December 12.
Winky Li, who made her Threads profile public to share her mother’s story and the difficulties of the resettlement process, told HKFP she had initially been reluctant to speak to the media, as her priority was her mother’s well-being.
She eventually accepted the interview request because she wanted more people to know about the experiences of Wang Fuk Court residents.
She expressed hope that the tragedy would not end up like the deadly Lamma ferry collision in 2012, in which family members spent 13 years seeking answers and are still awaiting the verdict of a death inquest meant to shed light on what caused the maritime disaster that claimed 39 lives.
“I don’t want people to forget about us after three months. I don’t want to end up like the Lamma ferry incident. After more than a decade, no one was held accountable, and no government official stepped down,” Winky Li said.
‘Kind hearts’
In the first month after the fire, Wang Fuk Court residents faced multiple challenges at once, including relocation and applying for various financial subsidies from the government and NGOs.
At times, they had to visit multiple locations in a single day to make the applications.
Winky Li recalled she had to call multiple temporary housing providers to find a flat for her mother. At the same time, she and her mother had to run around Tai Po – and sometimes travel to Kowloon – to register for and collect relief funds from different organisations.
On one occasion, in their rush, the mother tripped and sprained her ankle.
See also: Long road ahead: Tai Po blaze survivors grapple with psychological fallout while struggling to return to normal life
Although the government had assigned one social worker per household and deployed civil servants to assist residents, Winky Li said their assigned worker only began helping almost a week after the fire.
“During the first week, I lost all concept of time. I only knew day and night, and oftentimes I couldn’t remember whether I had eaten or not,” Winky Li said.
After a brief stay at the HKFYG Leadership Institute in Fanling, her mother is now housed in Trackside Villas in Tai Po, a transitional housing project managed by the Hong Kong Housing Society.
Yip, the Wang Tai House resident, also said she fell ill due to the “exhausting” process of applying for various relief support.
But she said she had been “deeply moved” by the relief effort rallied by the Hong Kong community in the wake of the fire, as well as by the government social worker who had been assisting with her settlement.
“Despite this being such a tragedy, I have also witnessed the kind hearts of the Hong Kong people,” said Yip. “I don’t even know how to describe it. It is beyond words.”
The most important support, however, came from family members like her cousin Annie.
“I can’t survive this tragic period without Annie and her family,” Yip said. “They have given everything to take care of me, to console me, and to attend to my every need… That’s why I can recover emotionally relatively quickly.”
‘Long shadow’
Since the fire, the entire Wang Fuk Court has been cordoned off by the authorities as the investigation gets underway. But its blackened facade has been clearly visible even from afar.
It is unclear whether the housing estate will be rebuilt and whether residents will return to the estate in the future.
The government has said it will not “rule out any possibility” at this stage regarding reconstruction of Wang Fuk Court while taking into account factors like the conditions of the buildings, the state of repairs and the preferences of the residents, according to local media reports.
In the short to medium term, residents will be allowed to stay in transitional public flats as well as other government-subsidised housing.
As of Monday, about 500 residents were staying in hotels, while about 560 others were in youth hostels. Another 3,500 residents were living in transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau.
But the enormous loss of human lives and the psychological trauma after the fire will cast a long shadow over any prospect of rebuilding Wang Fuk Court at its current location.
“If not for the trauma, of course I would like to return… After all, I’ve lived here for over four decades,” said Rowena Li. “But some neighbours, including those I had watched grow up from kids, are now gone. This casts a long shadow for all of us.”
Highly technical matters regarding compensation resulting from the disaster, as well as the buying, reselling and inheritance of Wang Fuk Court properties in the future, have yet to be addressed, she added.
Yip also said she did not want to move back into Wang Fuk Court in the future. “It is now a place of heartbreak,” she said, adding that she preferred relocation within Tai Po due to her attachment to the neighbourhood.
She said she had been fortunate enough to be able to stay with Annie’s family this past month, but she also wanted to move into her assigned unit in Kai Tak sooner rather than later.
“You can’t stay at other people’s homes forever. You have to learn to adjust, to adapt. But it takes time,” Yip said.
“I think this incident will become a test of my resilience. If I am strong enough, I may regain my footing quickly and adapt to life on my own. But if I turn out to be weak, then I can only let time do its work.”
