HONG KONG, Dec 6 - More than a week after flames tore through Hong Kong's Wang Fuk Court estate, killing at least 159 people, the city remains shrouded in grief and a search for answers.

The blaze that engulfed seven high-rise towers and took nearly two days to extinguish, is the deadliest fire in an apartment complex in recent history, eclipsing London's Grenfell Tower inferno of 2017.

Many of the estate's 4,600 residents, reeling from shock and loss, wandered for days near the disaster site in parks, squares and community centres, while volunteers rushed to help the needy and mourners flocked to pay tribute to the dead.

A FAMILY HOME GONE

How the fire started in the housing estate in Tai Po district on the afternoon of November 26 has not been established.

The entire complex was being renovated and by the time firefighters arrived, the blaze had spread upward and then jumped from tower to tower as scaffolding mesh wrapped around the buildings fanned the flames, authorities have said. 

Fire alarms were also not working properly and many of the residents on higher floors became trapped by the smoke and heat.

Mr and Mrs Leung, who had lived in the estate for decades and raised their now adult daughters there, returned to their home to find it ablaze. 

"I stood there watching as one block after another went up in flames, my legs felt so weak I could hardly stand,” said Mrs Leung, 71. 

"I still don't understand how the fire could spread so fiercely ... It was terrifying." The couple did not want to be further identified.

They said they counted themselves lucky to be safe, but mourn their airy two-bedroom flat looking out over low hills, where Mr Leung often lounged on his sofa or tended to pot plants.

The Leungs, along with many other displaced residents, congregated around a small park next to the estate in the days after the disaster, a clutch of ...