Laughter heard at shelters as children, students learn to cope with Hong Kong fire

Occasional outbursts of children’s laughter were heard on Friday morning at one of the shelters set aside for residents left homeless by the deadly inferno at a Tai Po housing estate in Hong Kong, as classes were still suspended in some of the schools in the aftermath.

Scattered across different corners at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall in Tai Po, some primary and secondary school students were sitting on mattresses, lying on the floor or playing games with visiting social workers.

Among them was a Primary Two pupil at SKH Yuen Chen Maun Chen Primary School in Tai Po, who said she missed going to school after spending two days at the sports complex-turned-shelter.

“My home at Wang Tai House is burnt, and I miss going to school,” the seven-year-old surnamed Wong said, referring to one of the seven blocks of Wang Fuk Court that the inferno had torn through for 43 hours since it started on Wednesday afternoon.

“I love PE classes and my dance team extracurricular activities. I perform ancient Chinese dance – with a paper fan – but I can’t go back home to get my PE uniform,” she said.

Unlike the girl, Andy Tam Pak-on, a Form One pupil at Kau Yan College who is staying on the other side of the shelter, said he was still attending school and that he was in his first-term examination period, which began on Thursday last week.