Watching his young children’s faces light up with excitement, William Li felt relief, but the deep ache in his chest was overwhelming.
His son and daughter were happy he had saved their most treasured possessions – a mobile phone and an iPad – from the inferno that had just devoured their home in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court on Wednesday. Thankfully, they had been at school and their mother at work at the time.
“Daddy is so great! You saved my phone!” his 10-year-old son exclaimed, cheering with his sister, seven.
They remained blissfully unaware of their father’s trembling voice and their mother’s tense, frozen expression.
Their entire life – carefully built over the years – had vanished in hours. All that remained were the two electronic devices and a few thousand Hong Kong dollars.
“People say you can always start over as long as you’re alive,” Li, 40, said. “But I wonder how? How can one start over if he has nothing at hand?”
The blaze that engulfed seven of the eight buildings at the residential complex in Tai Po left at least 128 dead and 79 injured. About 150 people remain unaccounted for, and Security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung has warned that more bodies might be found as recovery work was under way.
