For many Hong Kong families, they are the women who cook their meals, bathe their elderly parents and care for infants at home — often unseen, they are indispensable. More than 200 foreign domestic workers, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, were living in the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, the site of the deadliest fire in the city for decades that broke out last week.
In one 16th-story apartment, Cucu Susilawati, a worker from Indonesia, ran down the stairs with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. Elsewhere in the complex, Carren Dadap, a Filipina worker, rushed out the door with the 5-year-old boy in her care. In another home, Rhodora Alcaraz, who had just arrived in Hong Kong a day earlier from the Philippines, clutched a three-month-old baby as smoke filled the room around them.
Their stories reveal how foreign domestic workers, who help form the backbone of the city’s economy, also bore a significant share of the danger. There are almost 370,000 such workers in Hong Kong, the vast majority of whom are women, and they do the housework and provide child care for millions of residents.
Government rules mandate that they live with their employers, forcing many women to occupy cramped spaces in already crowded high-rise apartments. Workers who lose their jobs must find a new employer within two weeks or return to their home countries. Many of those affected by the fire are worried about losing their jobs, as their employers, who have lost their homes, may not be able to afford their wages, said Sring Sringatin, secretary of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union.
Last Wednesday, fires swept through seven high-rise apartment towers in a residential complex in the northern district of Tai Po. As of Sunday, the authorities said at least 146 people have died, 40 were reported missing, and thousands have been displaced.
At least 230 foreign domestic workers — 140 from Indonesia and 90 from the Philippines — were living and working in Wang Fuk Court, according to estimates provided by the two consulates.
As of Saturday evening, seven Indonesian domestic workers were confirmed dead, two were hospitalized and 45 were still unaccounted for, according to the Indonesian Consulate in Hong Kong. At least one domestic worker from the Philippines had died and seven people were unaccounted for, according to the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong.
On a typical Sunday, thousands of these workers spill into public parks and pedestrian bridges to relax on their only day off. This week, the mood was markedly somber as many dressed in black to honor the victims. A popular Filipino influencer urged workers to observe a day of silence, and to refrain from dancing or singing in parks. At the Indonesian Consulate, the flag was lowered to half-staff.
“I feel really sad,” said Dwi Astuti, who lives and works in Tai Po, a few minutes away from the site of the fire. “We are all here doing the same thing: earning a living for our families back home.”
In the afternoon, more than 1,000 Indonesian women gathered on the lawn at Victoria Park, on Hong Kong Island, to honor the victims. Some held up their hands in prayer. Others bowed their heads and wiped tears from their eyes.
“I’m getting emotional now. It’s too heavy for me,” said Sringatin, one of the organizers of the event, who goes by a single name as is common among Indonesians. “Domestic workers come here not just for themselves. They are also thinking about their family back home. They are the backbone of their families. They are mothers.”
‘Help us, we’re burning’
Rhodora Alcaraz was inside her employer’s apartment on the 13th floor when the fire broke out. She had been in Hong Kong only for a day, after arriving from the Philippines to start her new job as a nanny and housekeeper, said her sister, Jacqueline Tuñacao.
Just after 3 p.m., Ms. Alcaraz sent an audio message to her family in the Philippines. She sounded calm. “Our building is burning,” she said. “We’ve gotten stuck in the room. The smoke is coming in and I’m holding the baby.”
A few minutes later, she sent another message. This time, she was in tears. “Help us, we’re burning,” she said, according to her sister.
“I told her to be strong, to find a way out,” said Ms. Tuñacao. “She said she couldn’t leave the baby, and I didn’t know how to help her when she was so far away.”
Minutes later, her family members received a message with just the sounds of the baby wailing in the background.
Ms. Alcaraz remained trapped until the evening when she, the baby and the baby’s mother were rescued by firefighters, Ms. Tuñacao said. She did not suffer any burns but was sent to the intensive care unit of a hospital where she was put on a ventilator. As of Saturday, she was in critical condition but responding to treatment, according to a statement posted on social media by the Filipino government unit that manages overseas workers.
Carren Dadap, another domestic helper from the Philippines, was caring for a 5-year-old boy at home when one of his parents called to say that the building next door was on fire. No fire alarm had sounded. But soon, the smell of smoke filled the hallway and crept into the apartment. “I didn’t even think about taking my belongings or my passport or my money, as long as my charge and I could get out,” Ms. Dadap said in a video posted on social media by her employment agency.
Debris fell on them as she told the child to run down the stairs. “We need to go down or else both of us will die,” she said. When they emerged from the building, Ms. Dadap said she saw firefighters swarming the complex trying to extinguish the fire next door. But the flames were spreading quickly and had reached their building.
Cucu Susilawati, 43, a domestic worker from Indonesia, did not hear an alarm either. She was eating lunch inside her apartment on the 16th floor when she heard a loud bang and the sounds of fire trucks. She peered out of the bathroom window and saw a fire blazing below. “I left right away. I didn’t bring anything, just the clothes I was wearing,” she said in an interview in Mandarin.
Ms. Susilawati escaped But two of her neighbors — fellow caregivers looking after elderly women at Wang Fuk Court — died in the fire. They saw each other almost daily, she said, while grocery shopping or at a local park.
Ms. Susilawati is facing pressure to find a new job quickly. The woman she was caring for has moved to a nursing home, where she will remain full-time. Her employers have told her that her services are no longer needed.
Sringatin urged the Hong Kong government to make special arrangements to ensure that foreign domestic workers affected by the fire can remain in the city while they look for work. The Hong Kong government did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
“I don’t want to leave my job but there’s no way I can stay,” Ms. Susilawati said.
Francesca Regalado contributed reporting from Seoul.
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