Hong Kong Fire Survivors Return to Ruins

0:00On April 20th, survivors of Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades are heading back to their ruined homes this week. The blaze tore through seven out of eight buildings at Wang Fu Court in Tai Po, back in late November 2025, claiming 100, 68 lives and displacing thousands. Starting Monday, folks can enter for up to three hours to grab what they can from the wreckage. Many apartments are gutted, with ceilings collapsed down to the steel beams and floors covered in debris. Elevators are busted, so over a 1,400 residents over age 65 have been training to climb stairs in these 31-story. Towers. The process could drag on until early May as everyone gets a turn. People like 78-year-old Kong Muck are bracing for heartbreak after living there over 40 years. He and his wife lost irreplaceable stuff like wedding photos and family letters, leaving them with heavy hearts and scattered in temp housing, citywide. Investigators found nearly all fire safety systems failed that day due to human error and the probe keeps going.

1:02Officials say fixing the damage is too pricey, so they plan to tear down the seven-score buildings and buy back ownership rights from survivors. While some pushback, noting half the apartments might be repairable, others just want to outamit the trauma, even those in the one undamaged tower can't. Shake the memories. As families weigh new homes or closure, the real truth hunt continues. This has been Global News Today, powered by AI. I'm Kory with the story.