Grandfather Leung Mei thought his life was over when he found himself unable to move after breathing in too much smoke.
Gasping for breath, the 86-year-old told his 80-year-old wife and grandson to save themselves after they were woken at 5 am by screams warning of the fire below.
'They kept saying they wanted to stay with me in the house but I told them to leave,' he said from his bed in United Christian Hospital.
'All I was worried about was my grandson. He's only 13. I am an old man and have one foot in the grave already. It doesn't really matter if I live longer, but he still has a long way to go.' Mr Leung found he could not walk and could hardly breathe from the effects of smoke when the family tried to open the door of their seventh-floor flat to escape.
'I couldn't move at all. I just sat in the house and waited for firemen to come,' he said. 'Fortunately, they arrived at the last minute when I was about to lose consciousness.' Ng Mei-wah, 55, who lives with her husband and a son on the sixth floor, said they were forced back by heat and smoke when they opened their door.
'It was very scary. We immediately closed it and soaked some cloths to cover our mouths. We then poured water on the floor, opened all the windows and waved for help,' she said from the hospital's observation ward.
