Hong Kong — Yip Ka-kui advised CBS Information he was about to take a nap when his spouse referred to as him from the opposite room to say a fireplace was climbing up the constructing subsequent door, the place their son lived.
“I used to be so nervous. I instantly obtained my garments, cellphone and went downstairs,” he stated.
He by no means imagined that the blaze on the Wang Fuk Courtroom condominium complicated in Hong Kong would unfold so shortly. It tore via bamboo scaffolding, mesh netting overlaying it, after which foam window coverings that had adorned the sprawling complicated’s eight buildings for ongoing renovation work.
“I obtained outdoors and noticed an enormous fireplace,” he advised CBS Information on Monday, because the official demise toll from the blaze climbed to over 150. “Hearth was spreading in every single place, and I may hear the bamboo exploding. The fireplace unfold to the opposite block. The mesh caught alight.”
That different block was his personal constructing, the place he knew his spouse was nonetheless upstairs.He watched because the blaze unfold up the edges, shortly blocking the principle foyer.
“I referred to as my spouse instantly and stated there is a huge fireplace and now we have to go now,” the 67-year-old recalled via tears. “I advised my spouse, do not come down.”
He had hoped that firefighters would be capable of get the blaze beneath management earlier than it was too late.
On the opposite finish of the cellphone, his distraught spouse, Bai Shui Lin, advised him she could not transfer via the thick smoke.
Household picture
“Then there was a lot noise,” he stated. “I am unable to hear her anymore … solely noise. After which I am unable to contact her anymore. That is the final name I had along with her.”
“I stored ready, hoping the fireplace can be put out. I believed possibly solely the surface can be affected. However the fireplace simply stored getting greater,” he stated.
Because the blaze unfold to seven of the buildings on the complicated, Yip watched from behind a police cordon for any signal of his spouse being carried out, however he by no means noticed her.
He stated he pored over lists of pictures and names of victims for days because the demise toll mounted, giving her description to close by hospitals within the hope that she had been rescued.
“I could not discover my spouse,” he stated via tears. “I attempted every little thing.”
CBS Information 
5 days later, police confirmed his worst fears in a cellphone name on Monday. Bai, his spouse of 40 years, by no means made it out of their constructing.
The couple’s two sons needed to affirm her identification, however her stays have been burned so badly that authorities used an ID card present in her purse to confirm it was her.
Yip stated she had gone door to door, warning neighbors of the fireplace that had unfold to their constructing. He stated she helped a minimum of three different households make it out earlier than it was too late.
Each of their sons survived the catastrophic fireplace, however Yip stated he was fighting guilt over the lack of his spouse.
“If I would requested her to depart a minute earlier, I feel she would have survived,” he stated. “However we all know her. She would not have left with out warning others.”
Anthony Kwan / Getty Pictures 
Hong Kong authorities stated a minimum of 30 folks have been nonetheless lacking on Monday, and restoration groups have been nonetheless sweeping the seven charred buildings to search out victims who failed to flee.
No less than 14 folks have been arrested for suspected manslaughter, as particulars of obvious security regulation violations involving the supplies on the surface of the constructing proceed to return to gentle. Authorities haven’t dominated out additional arrests.
