Kinder chocolate and tears: Hong Kong lays to rest ‘gentle’ firefighter killed battling inferno that rocked city

By Chris Lau, Samra Zulfaqar, Kristie Lu Stout, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — The white wreaths were piled high on the doorsteps of a funeral house in Hong Kong, a stark reminder of a city still laying its dead to rest more than four weeks after a devastating fire.

Outside Universal Funeral Parlour were thousands of mourners waiting for their turn to pay their respects to a fireman who died battling an inferno that burned for almost two days and killed at least 160 people on a government-subsidized housing estate.

Friends, colleagues and members of the public bowed and laid incense offerings in tribute to Ho Wai-ho, 37, who was killed while trying to put out the blaze that engulfed seven high-rise residential blocks in the Tai Po neighborhood last month.

“He was so young, but he sacrificed himself,” Claris Lam, 58, said, her voice shaking. “I came to pay tribute.”

As mourners left Ho’s funeral on Thursday they were given pieces of Kinder chocolate – Ho’s favorite – prepared by his fiancée.

“Despite his muscular appearance he was like a child and here is a bit of sweetness for everyone,” she wrote on social medial

The mood at Ho’s funeral was generally somber, though emotions also broke through.

Ho’s friend Angel Chan, 38, fought back tears as she told CNN how she remembered him as a “good brother.”

“He’s very gentle and friendly,” said Chan, a policewoman, who met Ho through work.

On Friday his body was laid to rest at Gallant Garden, a cemetery reserved for civil servants who have died while carrying out their duty.

High-ranking officials, including Hong Kong leader John Lee, and some of Beijing’s officials in the city also attended the memorial.

Final shift

Ho’s funeral was one of dozens that have taken place across Hong Kong over the past weeks, as the city reels from the fire that killed, among others, toddlers, elderly citizens and foreign domestic helpers hired from Indonesia and the Philippines to look after them.

The blaze – the cause of which remains under investigation – has stunned Hong Kong, which has a strong safety record and is unused to disasters on this scale.

The housing complex, which was undergoing renovations, was home to more than 4,000 people. City officials and police have pointed the finger of blame at construction companies for allegedly using substandard mesh netting to wrap scaffolding on the buildings and multiple arrests have been made.

Those who survived saw the homes they saved up for many years to buy burned to the ground, and are now left in government-allocated temporary accommodation, grappling to re-establish their lives in a densely-packed city with a notorious housing shortage.

Firefighters in the city of 7.5 million found themselves battling one of the largest infernos they had ever encountered. More than 2,300 firefighters and first-aiders were deployed alongside nearly 400 fire trucks and 200 ambulances.

Ho was found collapsed at the scene shortly after the fire broke out on the first day. He died at a hospital later that day.

Twelve other firefighters suffered injuries ranging from bone fractures to respiratory ailments.

Fire services officials previously said their work was hindered by unforgiving heat that shot up to 932 °F and narrow hallways laden with fallen objects.

The inability to fully extend aerial ladder platforms – due to the lack of road space in the space-starved city – further complicated rescue efforts, capping firefighting efficiency on higher floors, they said.

Last week, on Ho’s birthday, the Fire Services Department posthumously conferred upon him the honorary title of Senior Fireman.

On Friday morning, a firetruck converted into a hearse carried his body to the fire station at Sha Tin, where he used to work.

There, he was honored with salutes and a requiem. Before his body was taken the cemetery for burial, a bell was rung, symbolizing the end of his shift.

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