‘Helper’ saved toddler and his grandma as towers burned

By the time authorities managed to extinguish the fire on Friday, 128 people were confirmed dead; This number is expected to increase and approximately 200 people are still unaccounted for.

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The death toll includes at least seven Indonesian workers, among 119 Indonesians and 82 Filipinos who authorities believe lived and worked in the towers.

The Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong confirmed on Friday that 24 Filipinos are safe so far, one injured and one missing.

Verador told the story of her escape to this post on Saturday, describing how she escaped up the stairs, carrying the almost two-year-old child, and took the old woman to safety.

When they reached the 15th floor, clouds of smoke were curling around them. Outside, bamboo scaffolding covered in green netting and erected around the towers’ façade for renovation purposes was in flames. He put a jacket over the boy to protect him from the burning debris.

“I saw the fire,” he says. “I want to achieve this because I have four children waiting for me in the Philippines. I am a single mother. ‘Please God, help me, help me’.”

The toddler was screaming “tita, tita” (the Filipino word for aunt in Tagalog) and the grandmother was having trouble going down the stairs. When they reached the fifth floor, Verador wanted to run but stayed behind to help the old lady.

“Grandma is in pain. I say, ‘Go faster, go faster, grandma,'” he says. “I didn’t leave my grandmother.”

When they went out, they saw that the neighboring tower was engulfed in flames and their block was also burned.

“It was very traumatic. If I sleep, I can see the building again; ‘shh’,” he says, throwing his hands up in the air, imitating hell.

“I don’t know how to start over. Everything I had was burned. Even my passport.”

Verador played this masthead image he shot on his phone, showing him holding the boy out of burning buildings.

The cause of the fire has not been confirmed, but Hong Kong authorities have launched an investigation into why fire alarms were not triggered and whether the use of green netting and styrofoam in renovation materials accelerated the fire.

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The Independent Commission Against Corruption said police arrested 11 people involved in the renovation of the towers, including scaffolding subcontractors, managers of an engineering consultancy and project managers who oversaw the renovation.

Verador is among about 400,000 domestic workers living in Hong Kong, most of them from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Many of them leave their own children behind and come from abroad in search of work, helping local families raise their children, earning a monthly salary of around HK$5000 ($983). They send the money they manage to save home to support their families.

The Philippine consulate was contacted for comment on what support it was providing to affected workers.

Migrant worker support organizations have set up temporary clinics near the fire-ravaged towers, distributing food, clothing and toiletries, and providing financial assistance to help workers urgently obtain new passports.

The Hong Kong government has promised to provide survivors with at least HK$10,000 to help them relocate, but it is unclear whether this support also extends to domestic workers.

“We’re actually calling on the Hong Kong government to include foreign domestic workers in these benefits, because they’ve lost everything, too,” says Edwina Antonio, executive director of the Bethune House migrant women’s shelter.

She says her organization has received messages from the public that society needs to recognize the heroic role domestic workers play in helping their employers keep their families safe.

Hong Kong media published the following reports: another Filipino worker The condition of the man who was rescued from one of the towers by firefighters while trying to save a three-month-old baby is in critical condition. According to reports, he had only been in Hong Kong for a few days.

Antonio said his organization has helped 37 survivors so far, including two women who were staying in hostels because their jobs were laid off after the fires.

The plight of domestic workers in Hong Kong is often overlooked and they are vulnerable to exploitation as their visas are tied to their employment.

The organization, which has no connection with the fires, supports 26 workers whose employment was terminated in temporary shelters, leaving them without support and having to leave the country if they cannot find another job within 14 days.

“Some have been raped, some have been physically assaulted, some have just given birth, some have cancer. They have to rely on charities like us,” says Antonio.

On Saturday afternoon, bouquets of flowers were gathered in a field near the towers as Hong Kongers remembered the victims.

68-year-old Elaine Wong, who was handing out flowers to people at the site, said the workers should not be forgotten.

“Filipinos are extremely wonderful people, especially those who help around the house. They have helped us a lot. Hong Kong mothers are often busy with busy work schedules, and so the burden of taking care of the children falls on the shoulders of Filipinos,” she says.

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“I think when it comes to housing in Hong Kong, there are so many restrictions. The flats are really cramped. You literally can’t breathe when you’re crammed in with 4 or 5 people and a maid.

“This kind of density makes it incredibly dangerous for people to escape in emergency situations.”

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