Hong Kong fire survivors rebuild lives from ashes

Lau is counting the days to June 30, a deadline that offers survivors of Hong Kong's Wang Fuk Court fire tragedy a potential new start in life after about seven months in the wilderness.

It's the first designated date for affected apartment owners to take up the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's buyout offer for their burned-out apartments.

An acceptance letter will entitle an owner to take part in the "first-round selection" for a new home under a special sales program.

A ballot will determine who chooses first.

"The draw could lead us anywhere," Lau said. "Still, a place to call my own is, in the end, better than any rented room."

Lau had just completed renovations of her home on the 16th floor of Wang Sun House, one of eight towers on the estate, when the blaze engulfed Wang Fuk Court on Nov 26.

Within hours, seven buildings were ablaze. The inferno raged for 43 hours, and 168 people lost their lives in the city's deadliest fire in nearly eight decades.

The apartment complex in Tai Po district, near Hong Kong's boundary with the Chinese mainland, was home to more than 4,600 residents. Lau and her family are among almost 2,000 displaced households piecing their lives back together after the disaster.

Lau, her husband, and two sons moved three times in the month following the fire.

Despite being provided a temporary shelter by the HKSAR government, they accepted a friend's offer to live in a beauty salon, she said. However, Lau's husband was too embarrassed to linger in the salon during the day as customers streamed in.

He went to a nearby park and sat there from "sunrise to sunset", she said. "I felt so sorry for him and found us somewhere else to live as fast as I could," Lau said.