Hong Kong – Yip Ka-kui told CBS News he was about to take a nap when his wife called him from across the room to say a fire was breaking out in the building next door, where their son lived.
“I was so nervous. I immediately grabbed my clothes, my phone and went downstairs,” she said.
He never imagined what the fire at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court apartment complex would do spread so quickly. He tore away the bamboo scaffolding, netting and then the foam window coverings that adorned the eight buildings in the sprawling complex for the ongoing renovations.
“I went outside and I saw a big fire,” he told CBS News on Monday, as the officer who died in the fire. It rose to more than 150. “The fire was spreading everywhere, and I could hear the bamboo exploding. The fire spread to the other block. The grid caught it.”
That other block was his building where he knew his wife was still upstairs. He watched as the fire spread from the sides, quickly blocking the main lobby.
“I immediately called my wife and said there is a big fire and we have to go now,” the 67-year-old recalled through tears. “I told my wife, don’t go down.”
He hoped the firemen would get the fire under control before it was too late.
On the other end of the phone, his distraught wife, Bai Shui Lin, told him she couldn’t move from the thick smoke.
Family photo 
“There was a lot of noise then,” he said. “I can’t hear him anymore…nothing but noise. And then I can’t contact him anymore. That’s the last call I had with him.”
“I kept waiting, hoping the fire would go out. I thought maybe it would only affect the exterior. But the fire was getting bigger,” he said.
As the fire spread to seven buildings in the complex, Yip looked behind a police cordon for any sign of his wife, but never saw her.
As the death toll rose, he said he studied the photos and the names of the victims for days, giving his description to nearby hospitals, hoping they had been rescued.
“I didn’t find my wife,” he said through tears. “I tried everything.”
CBS News 
Five days later, police confirmed his worst fears in a Monday phone call. Yes, his wife of 40 years, never left their building.
The couple’s two sons had to confirm his identification, but his remains were so badly burned that authorities used an ID found in his purse to verify that it was him.
Yip said he went door-to-door, warning residents of the fire that had spread to their building and said he helped at least three other families get out before it was too late.
Their two sons survived the devastating fire, but Yip said he was struggling with guilt over the loss of his wife.
“If I had asked him to leave a minute earlier, I think he would have survived,” she said. “But we know him. He wouldn’t go without warning the others.”
Anthony Kwan/Getty Images 
Hong Kong authorities said on Monday at least 30 people were still missing, and recovery teams were still searching the seven charred buildings for victims who had not escaped.
At least 14 people have been arrested in connection with the alleged murder, as details of apparent safety violations in materials outside the building continue to emerge. Authorities have not ruled out making more arrests.