The level 5 fire at Hong Fu Yuen in Tai Po, Hong Kong has resulted in significant casualties, and over 200 people are still missing or unaccounted for. The loved ones of those missing are desperately anxious. A 30-year-old programmer, Nathan, noticed that information about missing persons online was too scattered, so on the night of the incident, he quickly developed the “Hong Fu Yuen Safety Registration Web App” website using AI in just half an hour. By leveraging technology, he helped citizens search for their missing loved ones.
According to a report by “HK01”, after getting off work that evening, Nathan returned home to see the fire was still out of control, and with missing-person reports circulating online being too fragmented, as well as the Google Sheets set up by various neighborhood groups being overloaded and unable to update due to too many concurrent users, he was prompted to create an integrated platform.
Nathan, who works in program development, said that relying on his professional background, he issued precise instructions to AI to generate code, then made further modifications. Once finished, he immediately shared the website link to various neighborhood groups.
“The process was actually quite simple. I used AI technology to write the program, and from start to finish it took only about 30 minutes.”
This urgently developed safety website officially went live at 11 p.m. on the 26th, categorizing information by block, floor, and unit. Initially, it used an open editing mode. While most users registered in an orderly manner, cases of malicious data tampering soon appeared.
So Nathan immediately adjusted the settings, switching to data submission via forms, with 6 to 7 admins manually updating and maintaining it.
Website traffic peaked around midnight, with read counts once surpassing 100 million. The site is hosted on Google’s platform and charged by traffic, which has already incurred about HKD 2,000 (approximately MYR 1,061) in fees. Nathan is actively applying to Google for a fee waiver.
This programmer emphasized that he hopes to use his expertise to offer real help to citizens in need, doing his part during a time of disaster.