Since the shelter opened on Wednesday evening, residents kept arriving to report family members they had lost contact with.
Some sat dazed, looking with reddened eyes at cell phone screens as they hoped for news of missing loved ones.
Social workers distributed blankets and pillows to the elderly to help them endure the nighttime chill.
A police officer told AFP on Wednesday evening that it was unclear how many people were unaccounted for because residents were still trickling in late into the night.
Ng, in her 60s and declining to give her full name, said her windows were locked when the fire broke out.
She initially didn’t realise it was a fire but assumed the sounds were firecrackers.
Her heart was pounding as she and her family hurriedly evacuated their 19th-floor home, where they had lived for more than four decades, she said outside the shelter.
A 65-year-old resident surnamed Yuen said his neighbourhood is home to many elderly residents who use wheelchairs and walkers, and the fire left him and his wife homeless.
He said that since the apartment complex was undergoing maintenance, many residents kept their windows shut, so they did not hear the fire alarm.
“There is loss of property and loss of life, and even a firefighter has died,” Yuen said.
Some citizens have donated supplies and delivered them to shelters set up after the fire.
Heart is tingling
Logan Yeung, a 29-year-old volunteer, said he would remain on-site to provide support until rescue operations concluded.
“My heart is tingling,” he told AFP, adding that he believes construction issues caused the fire.
Deadly fires were once a regular scourge in densely populated Hong Kong, especially in poorer neighbourhoods.
However, safety measures have been ramped up in recent decades and such fires have become much less common.
But residents nearby said they had never anticipated the flames would spread with the wind to other buildings and burn all night long.
Shirley Chan, a 50-something housewife from a nearby neighbourhood, told AFP that she “watched the fire burn and couldn’t do anything”.
“We also didn’t know what everyone could do,” she said.
City leader John Lee said that a task force will be set up to investigate the fire and the results will be submitted to the coroner.
“[The government] needs to provide an explanation to the public,” Chan added.
- Agence France-Presse
