How Hong Kong’s Tai Po community is finding light in darkness, 1 month after fire
As Wang Fuk Court residents and their neighbours pick up the pieces after blaze, glimmers of hope and generosity bring comfort
Tai Po residents are forging ahead with new paths forward following a catastrophic blaze that claimed the lives of 161 people. In this first part of a series on how the community is moving on one month from the fire, Fiona Sun explores how the neighbourhood is rebuilding and adapting.
A heavy quiet has settled over the neighbourhood in Hong Kong’s Tai Po where seven towers stand charred.
Gone are the piles of flowers and notes bearing messages of grief and condolences that filled a makeshift memorial site at the Kwong Fuk Sitting-out Area, where mourners once waited in zigzagging lines.
Only a small basket of white and yellow bouquets remains across the road from the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate.
The neighbourhood is hushed, but residents said the silence itself bore witness to what the deadly blaze took from their once-vibrant community.
“It used to be a beautiful, lively neighbourhood, with constant chatter from elderly residents, young people and pupils, but it is quiet now and feels almost lifeless,” said Cheung Siu-fan, a four-decade resident of nearby Kwong Fuk Estate.
“I previously enjoyed the view of the Wang Fuk Court towers illuminated at night – they looked magnificent,” recalled the 70-year-old, whose flat on the 27th floor of Kwong Shung House now overlooks the blackened buildings.