Hong Kong Fire Survivor: "I Thought of Pushing My Wife Out the Window"

A Hong Kong man has described a desperate struggle to survive after a fire trapped him in his high-rise flat. When resident Mr. Chow opened his front door on Sunday, a dense wall of black soot filled his apartment. The fire had broken out a few doors away on the 21st floor of Mei Yue House in Shek Kip Mei Estate. "[The smoke] was cutting my throat and nose, and my eyes won’t stop tearing," said Chow, who is in his forties. With his wife and their dogs, he faced a harrowing escape. The smoke was so thick that jumping became a considered option. "I even thought of pushing my wife out the window," Chow recounted, illustrating their extreme desperation. "But then I thought, no, we should try the stairs." The couple used wet towels to cover their faces and crawled through the dark, smoke-filled corridor to reach the stairwell and safety. The fire left one man dead and eight others injured. Officials suggest clutter inside the flat where the fire started may have contributed to the blaze's speed and intensity.