Stories filled with tragic bravery, outrage at heedless officials and horror as loved ones perished were among those shared by 24 residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court estate, as they testified at a public hearing investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades.

Over multiple sessions that began on March 19, some told the presiding committee how their repeated efforts to raise bid-rigging and safety concerns about the estate’s exterior renovation fell on deaf ears, well before the 43-hour inferno destroyed seven of its eight buildings on November 26 last year.

The conflagration killed 168 – including a firefighter – and displaced nearly 5,000 people. Polyfoam boards and substandard scaffold netting that turned the estate’s towers into tinderboxes were among the causes that added outrage to the community’s grief, as growing evidence painted the portrait of a wholly preventable disaster.

The South China Morning Post highlights the stories of six residents revealed amid four rounds of hearings that concluded on May 8, and which will resume in mid-June.

Wife who alerted others to flee before her death

Sdanni Yip Ka-kui left his flat – 1701 in Wang Tai House – at around 3pm on November 26 to find out more about the fire that had broken out at the adjacent Wang Cheong House. His wife, Pak Shui-lin, stayed at home, and Yip had no idea he would never see her again.

Ten minutes after he left his flat, having discovered that the fire had spread to their block, Yip called his wife and told her to drop everything and evacuate. But Pak said thick smoke had filled their corridor and she could not escape. The couple lost contact after Pak hung up.