Grieving, traumatized survivors return to their homes 5 months after deadly Hong Kong fire

HONG KONG (AP) — He knows what he will see and he’s already hurting, but he has to go back.

For the first time since Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades engulfed his apartment building in November, Keung Mak will step into his former home again Monday. But he expected little remained. A photo from his social worker had already shown the devastation.

The ceiling of the apartment where he and his wife lived for over 40 years and raised their children was burned so badly that steel rebar was visible. The floor was littered with broken tiles, and parts of the apartment needed reinforcement to prevent collapse.

“My heart is heavy, I’m very disappointed. I didn’t expect the first floor would be burned like this,” Mak, 78, said ahead of returning.

The fire spread rapidly across seven of the eight buildings in the apartment complex in the suburban district of Tai Po, killing 168 people. Starting Monday, the thousands of residents displaced by the fire were returning to see what is left of their homes and retrieve their belongings. The process is expected to continue into early May.

As the investigation into the cause of the fire continues, survivors have been living as best they can, scattered across the city, many in temporary housing as they wait to find out where they can resettle.

The exteriors of some buildings remained blackened from the flames, a reminder of the tragedy.

The return will be particularly difficult for many of the complex's older residents, who made up over a third of some 4,600 people who lived there before the blaze.

With elevators out of service, some have been training to improve their fitness in preparation for climbing the stairs up the 31-story buildings.

Hong Kong Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said over 1,400 people registered for the return are 65 or older, public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong reported.

He later told reporters about 270 people would return to the complex Monday.

There were many items in Mak's apartment that the family cherishes and longs to retrieve: a fishing rod Mak's son bought him as a gift; wedding photos from half a century ago; letters from their son from years past. They believe almost all of it is destroyed.

“A lot of things with commemorative value are all gone,” said Mak's wife, Kit Chan, 74. “Not even a single piece of paper will be left.”

Residents will typically be allowed to stay in their apartments for up to three hours, with up to four people entering. In some severely damaged units, only one person can go in.

With only two people allowed in due to the condition of their apartment, Mak and his son will go back. Chan hopes authorities can let her take a look too.

Cyrus Ng, 39, lived on the 10th floor of the Wang Fuk Court complex with his parents for over a decade before moving out.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, he couldn’t sleep, feeling angry, sad and worried about his parents. Nearly five months later, he is more emotionally settled but has not fully accepted what happened.

“We know there are suspicious issues behind this,” he said. “I hope we can really find the truth.”

A lawyer representing an independent committee conducting an ongoing inquiry into the fire’s cause has said almost all fire safety devices in the apartment buildings failed on the day of the blaze because of human error.

Ng has mixed feelings about returning next week to their apartment, which was spared the worst damage. He fears the emotional impact on his parents, but looks forward to the chance to retrieve their title deed, old photos, clothes and other valuable items.

He also said he is worried about theft after months of vacancy. Police arrested three men in March on suspicion of stealing from the site.

The government previously said repairing the damaged buildings cost-effectively would be difficult. Officials were inclined to demolish the seven fire-ravaged buildings, and have proposed to buy back the homeownership rights from the fire victims.

They cited results from a residents' survey, dashing hopes for those who want their homes rebuilt.

Some residents questioned that stance. Data from the fire inquiry showed that only half of some 1,700 apartments in the seven buildings were damaged, to varying degrees.

Ng wondered if some of the buildings could be repaired to allow some residents to return, though his parents were already considering the government’s offer of an apartment elsewhere. He plans to take photos of his apartment during his return to document its condition and help prove that some homes were unaffected.

Other residents who lived in the only building in the complex that escaped the fire face the trauma of living with nightmarish memories.

Stephanie Leung, a resident of that block, is reluctant to live in the same apartment again. She said her family would face great mental stress every time they looked out over the seven other buildings where their former schoolmates or friends died.

She hopes the government will include her block in the same plan as the other buildings, while allowing those who want to remain to stay.

“Whenever I go back, I want to cry,” she said.

FILE - People offer flowers and pray for the victims near the site of Wednesday's fire at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

FILE - Smoke rises after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Nov. 26 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

FILE - People stand amid donated supplies following the fire that started Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories, Friday, Nov. 28 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

Resident Cyrus Ng poses for photos at a park near Wang Fuk Court, the apartment complex hit by Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades, Monday, April 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)

HAVANA (AP) — Havana's broad avenues are empty at night. Theaters are closed. Bars and cafes have curtains lowered. It’s hard to find lights in the streets or Cubans making money entertaining tourists.

Under the weight of an oil embargo imposed by the second administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, and the island's most severe economic crisis in decades, the city's once bustling nightlife has gone quiet.

“I feel empty inside when I see my streets empty,” said Yusleydi Blanco, a 41-year-old accountant. “I can’t be happy when my country is sad.”

Following a 2016 deal between then-Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro easing U.S. travel restrictions on Cuba, money flooded the island as tourism spiked. A small number of entrepreneurs opened newly allowed private businesses and bought imported modern vehicles that shared the streets with classic cars from the 1950s.

In 2018, a record 4.7 million tourists arrived on the island. Hotel accommodations were so saturated that travelers without lodging were seen sleeping in a park in the small western Cuban town of Viñales that draws thousands of tourists and rock climbers to its scenic limestone cliffs.

Today, gasoline sales are limited to 20 liters (5 gallons) per vehicle and owners can wait months for a turn at the pump. Buses now stop running at 6 p.m. and international airlines including Air France, Air Canada and Iberia have stopped flying to Havana because they can’t refuel there. The sound of cars has disappeared in the wealthy El Vedado neighborhood, where the soundscape of chirping birds has reemerged.

The Cuban government reported the arrival of 77,600 tourists in February, down from 178,000 on the same month a year ago.

“This is worse than the Special Period," said 65-year-old parking attendant Dolores de la Caridad Méndez about the years of economic devastation that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's Cold War patron, in the 1990s.

In contrast with his Democratic predecessors, U.S. President Donald Trump has tightened economic sanctions against Cuba, demanding an end to political repression, a release of political prisoners and a liberalization of the island’s ailing economy.

The deepening crisis has led to persistent blackouts, cuts to the state-run food ration system, and severe shortages of water and medicine that have transformed daily life into an ordeal for many in the island of 10 million. Between 2021 and 2024, approximately 1.4 million Cubans left the island — mostly young people but also accomplished musicians, actors, dancers and other entertainers who fueled Havana's nightlife.

In January, the U.S. captured then-President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, which had been Cuba's primary supplier of oil. The Trump administration severed that supply and threatened to impose tariffs on other countries that sold oil to Cuba, which went without a single shipment until a Russian tanker came in March.

For entrepreneurs and business owners across the island, life has become difficult as tourism plummeted and their hopes of selling cheaper goods to fellow Cubans dashed against the rocks of a vastly harder economic reality.

“You wake up and you're ready to conquer the world, saying, ‘Today I’ll sell more than ever,'” said Yeni Pérez, owner of the Old Havana cafe Entre Nos. “Then not a single client comes in and you go home devastated.”

“The next day,” she said, “You say, ‘Let’s give it another chance.' It's a time that's testing everyone's stamina."

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A restaurant sits empty in Havana, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A woman crosses an avenue in Havana, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Vehicles traverse the Malecon at dusk in Havana, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A street musician walks past a restaurant in Havana, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)