Hong Kong — Yip Ka-kui advised CBS Information he was about to take a nap when his spouse known as him from the opposite room to say a hearth was climbing up the constructing subsequent door, the place their son lived.
“I used to be so nervous. I instantly bought my garments, cellphone and went downstairs,” he mentioned.
He by no means imagined that the blaze on the Wang Fuk Court docket condo advanced in Hong Kong would unfold so rapidly. It tore via bamboo scaffolding, mesh netting overlaying it, after which foam window coverings that had adorned the sprawling advanced’s eight buildings for ongoing renovation work.
“I bought exterior and noticed a giant fireplace,” he advised CBS Information on Monday, because the official dying toll from the blaze climbed to over 150. “Hearth was spreading all over the 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 perimeters, rapidly blocking the primary foyer.
“I known as my spouse instantly and mentioned there is a large fireplace and we have now to go now,” the 67-year-old recalled via tears. “I advised my spouse, do not come down.”
He had hoped that firefighters would have the ability to get the blaze below 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 mentioned. “I can not hear her anymore … solely noise. After which I can not contact her anymore. That is the final name I had along with her.”
“I stored ready, hoping the fireplace could be put out. I believed possibly solely the surface could be affected. However the fireplace simply stored getting greater,” he mentioned.
Because the blaze unfold to seven of the buildings on the advanced, Yip watched from behind a police cordon for any signal of his spouse being carried out, however he by no means noticed her.
He mentioned he pored over lists of images and names of victims for days because the dying toll mounted, giving her description to close by hospitals within the hope that she had been rescued.
“I could not discover my spouse,” he mentioned via tears. “I attempted the whole lot.”
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 verify 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 mentioned she had gone door to door, warning neighbors of the fireplace that had unfold to their constructing and saying she helped not less than three different households make it out earlier than it was too late.
Each of their sons survived the catastrophic fireplace, however Yip mentioned he was battling guilt over the lack of his spouse.
“If I might requested her to go away a minute earlier, I believe she would have survived,” he mentioned. “However we all know her. She would not have left with out warning others.”
Anthony Kwan / Getty Photos 
Hong Kong authorities mentioned not less than 30 individuals 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 individuals 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 mild. Authorities haven’t dominated out additional arrests.
