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Thousands of Hongkongers have mobilised online and offline in a flood of support to help families affected by Wednesday’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire, which has left 94 people dead.
Dozens of restaurants, churches, 24-hour gyms, schools, as well as government-run and grassroots community centres in the Tai Po neighbourhood, opened their doors to anyone in need in the wake of the tragedy.
Stacks of boxes, and an abundance of blankets, clothing, sleeping mats, food and water had piled up at many of these locations by Thursday, as volunteers shouted and waved, coordinating supplies to be sent to locations where residents had sought temporary housing.
A constant stream of messages has circulated on Facebook, Telegram and Whatsapp groups. Users searched for missing persons and pets, coordinated vehicles for pick-up and drop-off, and announced which supply stations had stopped receiving supplies because they had reached capacity.
By late morning on Thursday, two websites had appeared to gather appeals for support and aggregate community messages. An interactive map detailed where shelters, clinics and supply stations could be found.
The sudden outpouring, speedy mobilisation of volunteer networks, and the overnight emergence of digital tools and resources is reminiscent of scenes from the city’s 2014 and 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations, as residents and protestors rallied to support each other at a time of crisis.
By Thursday evening, the public square at the neighbouring public housing estate in Tai Po looked like a busy wet market. Volunteers laid out boxes of clothing categorised by size, children’s clothing was boxed by age, whilst food and phone chargers were made available for anyone who wanted them.
“The last time I saw something like this was in 2019, where people of Hong Kong just donated whatever they could and helped however they could,” a 20-year old university student and Tai Po resident named Gordon told HKFP.
Earlier in the afternoon, more than a hundred volunteers congregated in the backstreets near Tai Po Market MTR station in front of Rainbow Skewers, which was closed. Several people came in and out to drop off boxes of drinks, bread, fruit, nappies and clothing.
A woman acting as a coordinator stood on a stool overlooking the crowd, shouting: “Do we have a driver and four people? We need to send these to the secondary school.” The school had been transformed into government-run temporary shelter.
Nicole Lai, a Tai Po resident herself, stopped her vehicle in a no-parking zone outside of the eatery and started offloading around a dozen boxes of bananas. A man she didn’t know came over with a trolley to receive them and sent them onwards to other distribution points.
“I just wanted to help after seeing messages online. I ordered around 39 boxes of bananas from the Tai Po market and from the wholesale fruit market for around HK$10,000. They’re all out of stock now,” said Ms Lai in Cantonese. “I drive by that estate everyday. My heart aches for it.”
A Hong Kong bike share start-up, LocoBike, made its bikes free for all to use on Thursday. At around noon, a small group of volunteers picked up dozens of takeaway food containers from a dumpling store, and sped off towards Wang Fuk Court on the share bikes.
Meanwhile, at a government-run temporary shelter in the Tung Cheong Street Sports Centre, around 200 people slept tatami-style on the floor of the indoor arena. Others bedded down at a community hall in the same building, and in elevator lobbies.
Government workers from several departments – as well as care team workers coming from other districts – helped residents fill in forms to apply for medication, supplies and social welfare. Several of them refused media interviews saying had they received orders not to speak to journalists.
See also: Hongkongers search for missing relatives, pets after deadly Tai Po fire
Ms Ng, a Wang Fuk Court resident, said she was able to get everything she needed from the centre. Items she gathered included blankets, warm clothes for when it gets colder at night, food and water. Along with her husband, she stayed at a friend’s home on Wednesday night and were looking to find a spot at a government shelter for the following days. “I try not to read too much news at the moment,” the 60-year old told HKFP in Cantonese.
A list of volunteering Whatsapp groups circulated on social media for anyone wishing to chip in at different times of the day. The groups each had up to 1,000 members, and almost all of the slots were full by Thursday afternoon.
Others circulated messages in capital letters and cross emojis, urging people to stop bringing supplies to some locations owing to an overabundance of materials. The Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service said it now had up to ten days worth of stock, as it appealed to Hongkongers to book appointments for the future.
A fully developed web-app came online Thursday morning, with administrators aggregating messages from various social media platforms. The app included a spreadsheet where each cell represented an apartment in Wang Fuk Court. A cell labelled in green meant its residents had marked themselves as safe, whilst a red cell meant a search and rescue message was still ongoing.
People can report themselves as safe, send out calls for help, search for community centres or supplies from an interactive map, or watch a live news broadcast – all within the website.
“I don’t think the government has had to find shelter for this many people at once [during] the past several decades. They don’t have experience handling such a large disaster – we understand that,” said a man who came to visit his elderly sister who was sheltering at a sports centre. He declined to be named.
“People won’t be able to return to their apartments so soon. Even after the fires are extinguished, the apartment buildings still need to be examined by the Buildings Department to see if they are structurally safe for people to move back in,” he added in Cantonese.
The Fire Services Department said that, as of 6am on Friday, 76 people have been injured in what has been described as the worst blaze since the Second World War. Door-to-door checks by the department are set to be completed on Friday morning, with dozens still unaccounted for.
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