Tin Shui Wai school mourns brothers killed in Pat Heung fire
Two young boys remembered as 'cheerful and active' as social workers comfort their friends
A school in Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long, was in mourning yesterday for two brothers killed in a fire as they slept early on Saturday.
Eliot Watkiss, eight, and his brother Frankie, seven, attended the W.F. Joseph Lee Primary School, where their mother, Candy Watkiss, teaches English.
Tsang Chun-yee, a spokesman for the school, which has about 800 pupils, said pupils were subdued, some in tears. The headmaster and social workers were identifying the boys' close friends and comforting them.
Tsang described the two brothers as "cheerful and active" and said they had been learning kickboxing among other activities. Others remembered them as lively and likeable.
Tsang said teachers and pupils wrote condolence cards, while Christian teachers led prayers to mourn the deaths.
The principal had tried to console pupils by comparing lives to flowers, saying: "Some live longer, while some live shorter lives. What's important is to live a meaningful life."