“My heart breaks every time I’m called a hero”

William Lee has been battling the label of “hero” since helping his neighbors escape a fire that engulfed the Hong Kong apartment building he has called home since birth.

Instead, he felt guilty because he could have saved more people from the Wang Fook Court fire, which killed at least 159 people.

“Every time someone calls me a hero, it breaks my heart,” the 40-year-old said through tears.

A week after the disaster, firefighters are still searching the complex The seven burned-out high-rise buildings contained the remains of 30 of Mr. Lee’s neighbors – people who, like him, were unlucky enough to be at home when the fatal fire broke out.

What caused the fire, and why more people did not escape, are now the subject of an independent commission of inquiry ordered by Hong Kong’s chief executive.

It was revealed that non-fireproof mesh had been installed around the building and the fire alarms were not functioning properly.

Since the alarm didn’t sound, Mr. Li didn’t become more worried when his wife called him to tell him there was a fire in their building, Hongchang Building.

He didn’t rush, but spent nearly 10 minutes packing his luggage.

But the moment he opened the door, the enormity of the disaster became clear: He was engulfed in billows of smoke and had to retreat into his apartment.

On the other end of the phone, his wife became hysterical, but Mr. Li had no time to panic.

He had to put wet towels under the door to stop the smoke from getting in and try to figure out what to do next.

Just then, he heard voices in the corridor, and the air was so thick with smoke that he couldn’t see who was shouting. Covering his face with a wet towel, he touched two neighbors before dragging the couple into the relative safety of their apartment.

In a nearby neighborhood, Bai Shuilin was also trying to help her neighbors.

The 66-year-old is believed to have saved at least three families by knocking on doors to warn them of a fire.

However, Ms. Bai did not survive in the end. Her sons identified her body over the weekend.

“If I had let her go a minute earlier, I think she would have survived,” Yip told BBC US partner CBS. “But we know her. She wouldn’t leave without warning others.”

After returning to Mr. Li’s apartment, the middle-aged couple revealed that they heard another voice in the corridor: a domestic helper calling for an old woman. But now, the voices are quiet.

This time, Mr. Li was powerless.

“I feel very guilty,” he said. “Some people were not saved and I didn’t open the door again to find them.”

Mr. Li still doesn’t know what happened to the noise in the corridor. According to reports, nine Indonesian domestic workers and one Filipino domestic worker were among the dead, but others survived, including 28-year-old Rhodora Alcaraz, who was trapped in another apartment caring for her employer’s three-month-old baby and elderly mother. She was also hailed as a hero for staying by their side.

Eventually, all three were rescued by firefighters, but not before Ms Alcaraz sent a series of voice messages to her sister.

“I feel very weak. I can’t breathe,” she said in one of the videos, Reuters reported.

Mr. Li and the couple, known to local media as Mr. and Mrs. Zhou, realized they, too, needed to escape. Hours passed and their options were running out.

One fire escape was blocked by flames, while Mr Li’s neighbors believed another was locked. Because of the intensity of the fire and the constant explosions, they decided not to jump from the second-story window.

The property manager of Wang Fook Court, a subsidiary of Danish company ISS, has not yet responded to the BBC’s inquiries about reports that the emergency exits were locked.

“This is the first time I feel that death is related to me,” Mr. Li said.

That’s why he started saying goodbye to his friends one by one via WhatsApp: “I can’t escape,” he told them. “If anything happens to me, please take care of my children. Take care of yourselves too.”

Firefighters finally reached them via aerial ladders about two and a half hours after the fire broke out. Ms Zhou told Hong Kong news outlet HK01 that Mr Li insisted on letting firefighters rescue them first. “We were older and told him he should leave first. He refused and said he was young and could handle it.”

When firefighters returned to rescue him, Mr. Li was reluctant to leave his home, which was filled with fond memories, as well as precious photography equipment and toys.

“The fire taught me that I couldn’t take anything with me, that I had no rights or authority to stop it from consuming everything.”

Mr. Li reunited with his family at a nearby fast food restaurant.

But after arriving at the hospital, and not until the early hours of the morning, he didn’t really feel the horror he was enduring.

“I no longer had any strength and when I got to the emergency room my knees gave out. A burning smell lingered in my nose,” he said. “I really want to wash this smell away.”

After being admitted to the ward at 3:00 a.m., Mr. Li finally had time to cry and start trying to process the ordeal he had gone through.

“When I’d been to the hospital before, I wanted to go home as quickly as possible,” he said. “But this time, when the nurse asked me (if I wanted to go home), I didn’t want to leave. I felt like I was avoiding what I was going to face in the future.”

However, he decided to confront the trauma by giving as many interviews as possible.

“I hope a lot of people will come forward and help find the truth,” he said. “I hope the residents of Wang Fook Court will get answers and justice.”

Additional reporting by Phoebe Kong and Grace Tsoi