Hong Kong blaze spotlights enduring role of city's foreign domestic helpers

Highlights:

• Indonesian consulate confirms six nationals dead
• Volunteers trying to help workers who are "backbone" of city
• Aid agencies warn of "double whammy" of termination and trauma

Indonesian domestic helper Fita spoke of the confusion inside the Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex as it was engulfed in flames on Wednesday in the city's deadliest fire since 1948.

Amid sirens, flying debris and smell of burning, Fita told her employer there was a fire but her boss did not believe her.

After going outside and seeing two buildings burning in the Wang Fuk Court complex she pressed again: "I just straight-talked to my employer - I said you have go down now."

"It was scary. I was going to cry because I saw a lot of people confused," Fita, 49, said.

The pair eventually got out and are staying in emergency housing.

Fita said she is now praying for those still missing and trying to track down friends among the dozens of migrant workers in the eight-building complex, seven of which were engulfed in the blaze.

The city is now mourning the 128 people known to have died - a toll that is likely to rise with 200 others still unaccounted for.

Among them are some of the city's 368,000 foreign domestic helpers, mostly women contracted from low-income Asian countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces.

They assist them with cooking, cleaning and caring for the young and elderly, many earning monthly wages as low as HK$5000 ($642) in one of the world's most expensive cities.

Baby in a blanket

Indonesia said on Saturday that six of its citizens died in the blaze, while the Philippines has said one of its nationals was critically injured, one is missing and 28 are thought to be residents of the area but their whereabouts are unknown.

The injured Philippines worker Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employers' 3-month-old baby in a wet blanket while trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Raychelle Loreto told Reuters.

Alcaraz, who had only been in Hong Kong for a few days, sent panicked audio messages to her sister in the Philippines via Facebook as the situation escalated.

"I'm feeling very weak. I can't breath," she said in one of the clips, sobbing and struggling to speak.

"We are poor. Our father is just a fisherman, that is why she decided to work abroad to help the family. We are so proud of our sister and she didn't leave the baby until they were rescued," Loreto said.

Helping hands

At a sports centre near Wang Fuk, the wooden courts were filled with mattresses and duvets as helpers and outside volunteers sorted through supplies to aid evacuees.

"They're the backbone of the Hong Kong economy but they're voiceless, so we're doing what we can to find them and make sure they're okay," said one Hong Kong social worker, who carried a bag of food and clothes but declined to be named.

Some domestic workers who fled the complex spoke of being unable to sleep, trauma and fear for their futures as they still tried to help their host families.

Migrant worker agencies say they hope that Hong Kong government emergency funds to help stricken families will also extend to domestic helpers and assistance can be given to those who have lost passports and identity documents.

Edwina Antonio, executive director at migrant worker refuge Bethune House, said they knew of two workers who had lost their jobs as a result of the fire, possibly because of the employers' financial plight.

"The employers should also sympathise - if they get terminated and they are traumatised by this incident, it's a double whammy," Antonio said.