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

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.