Hongkongers gather on seventh day after Tai Po fire to grieve, pray and demand answers
Hundreds assemble at Kwong Fuk sit-out area to lay flowers and pray, with palpable anger over ‘profiteers’ whose shoddy work exacerbated blaze
Residents and mourners have demanded that the Hong Kong government ramp up its investigations to hold responsible parties accountable, as they gathered to mark the seventh day after the start of the city’s worst fire in seven decades.
Hundreds of people assembled at the Kwong Fuk Sitting-out Area in Tai Po on Tuesday, laying flowers, writing messages of grief and praying for those who died in the blaze that engulfed the nearby Wang Fuk Court housing estate last week. The fire claimed at least 156 lives.
Among them was Lui Yuk-lin, a 62-year-old office worker who travelled from Tsuen Wan. She attached black ribbons to two white chrysanthemums and placed a note with the words “Namo Amitabha Buddha” on top of them.
She said she came to the site because it was the seventh day after disaster struck and people perished, which in Taoist and Buddhist belief is a time when souls of the deceased revisit their loved ones in the mortal world to say a final goodbye.
Lui could not hold back her tears while praying for those lost in the fire and lamented, “So tragic”, before laying down flowers and two pastries in the sitting-out area, which was turned into a mourning zone for days.
Hongkongers mark traditional 7th day after death for victims of Tai Po fire
“The government must continue to investigate who neglected their duty and who should take responsibility,” Lui said.