Hong Kong mother Moon Li was just HK$65,000 (US$8,350) away from paying off the mortgage on the flat she and her husband bought 17 years ago, but a deadly blaze at their Tai Po estate may have shattered her dream of owning a home.

“I used to have a cosy home,” the 40-year-old clinic assistant said. “I decorated the place very well and lived there comfortably for more than a decade.”

Li, her husband and their eight-year-old son were one of the 2,000 households at Wang Fuk Court, where seven of its eight blocks were severely damaged in the inferno on November 26.

The couple bought the subsidised flat at the estate’s Wang Sun House under the Home Ownership Scheme for about HK$2 million shortly before they got married. It has been their home through their marriage and the birth of their son.

They were close to paying off the mortgage and fully owning the house – a goal shared by many families in the city.

The 43-hour blaze killed at least 159 people and injured another 79. Li and her family escaped the disaster because they were not home at the time.