Filipino helper killed in Hong Kong fire ‘was going home for good to be with son’
Maryan Pascual Esteban, who died with her five-year-old ward Hannah in the Tai Po inferno, was excited about heading home, friend says
A domestic helper who died in Hong Kong’s devastating Tai Po fire last month had planned to return home permanently to the Philippines to be with her 10-year-old son and was due to leave on Saturday, the Post has learned.
Maryan Pascual Esteban, 39, died with her ward, five-year-old Hannah, in the inferno at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate, which killed at least 160 people and displaced more than 4,000 residents.
Ten domestic workers – Esteban and nine Indonesians – were among the fatalities when the fire broke out on November 26 and quickly swept through seven of the estate’s eight residential high-rise buildings.
Esteban arrived in Hong Kong more than five years ago when her employer was heavily pregnant with Hannah, her only child, and had worked for the family the whole time, Rowena Paril, a close friend, told the Post on Saturday.
Paril, 47, said she and Esteban would meet at a playground near the estate every afternoon so their wards could play with each other.