His name will remain forever in the solar system
When a fire consumed Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong in November 2025, killing 168 people, firefighter Ho Wai-ho was among those who walked toward the flames so others could walk away — and did not survive. Now, through the quiet authority of the International Astronomical Union, his name has been given to minor planet 34871, a celestial body discovered in 2001 by Hong Kong-born astronomer William Yeung. It is a gesture that speaks to an ancient human need: to find a place in the permanent order of things for those whose sacrifice resists being forgotten.
- A catastrophic tower block fire in November 2025 killed 168 people in Hong Kong, making it one of the city's deadliest disasters in living memory.
- Firefighter Ho Wai-ho, 37, entered the burning building to help residents escape and never came out — leaving behind a fiancée, a city in mourning, and a question about how to honor such a loss.
- Astronomer William Yeung, who discovered asteroid 34871 in 2001, chose to give the long-unnamed minor planet a permanent designation through the International Astronomical Union as a tribute to Ho's courage.
- Before the news went public, Yeung contacted Ho's fiancée Kiki directly, telling her that while the asteroid may be invisible to the naked eye, what it represents is genuine and eternal.
- Kiki's public response — addressing her late partner as 'Dearest 34871 Ho Wai-ho' — captured grief in the act of reaching upward, transforming loss into a kind of celestial vigil.
In November 2025, a fire tore through Wang Fuk Court, a housing complex in northern Hong Kong, killing 168 people. Firefighter Ho Wai-ho, 37, was among those who entered the burning towers to help residents escape. He did not come out.
More than a year later, Ho's name has been carried into the solar system. Minor planet 34871 — discovered in 2001 by William Yeung, a Hong Kong-born amateur astronomer — has been officially named in his honor through the International Astronomical Union. The accompanying citation is spare: Ho "served with courage in fire and rescue operations, assisting in the evacuation of residents during emergencies." No flourish, no enlargement. The facts are enough.
Before the designation became public, Yeung reached out to Ho's fiancée, Kiki, to share the news. He told her that the asteroid may not be visible to the human eye, but that what it represents is genuine and eternal — and that Ho's name would remain in the solar system long after any earthly memorial has faded. Kiki shared his message alongside her own: "Dearest 34871 Ho Wai-ho, as a star you will forever watch over us."
It is the language of grief finding a new shape — not quite acceptance, but a reaching upward. That a man who ran toward danger in a Hong Kong housing block now has his name written into the permanent catalog of the solar system says something about what people need when loss is too large for ordinary monuments: a way of insisting that some lives belong not just to memory, but to the structure of the universe itself.
In November of last year, a fire tore through Wang Fuk Court, a housing complex in northern Hong Kong, and killed 168 people. Among those who died was Ho Wai-ho, a 37-year-old firefighter who entered the burning towers to help residents escape. He did not come out.
Now, more than a year later, Ho's name has been carried into the solar system. An asteroid—a minor planet designated 34871—has been officially named in his honor. The naming came through the International Astronomical Union, the body that oversees such designations. The asteroid itself was discovered in 2001 by William Yeung, a Hong Kong-born amateur astronomer, but it took decades for the minor planet to receive its permanent name.
The citation that accompanies the designation is spare and direct. It notes that Ho "served with courage in fire and rescue operations, assisting in the evacuation of residents during emergencies." There is no flourish in the language, no attempt to enlarge the moment. The facts are enough: a man did his job, and he died doing it.
Yeung, the astronomer who discovered the asteroid, reached out to Ho's fiancée, Kiki, to share the news before it became public. In a social media post on Tuesday, she described what he told her. "This asteroid may not be visible to the human eye," Yeung had said, "but the essence it represents is genuine and eternal." He added that Ho's name would remain forever in the solar system—a permanence that no earthly memorial, however carefully tended, can quite match.
Kiki's own words, posted alongside Yeung's message, carried the weight of someone still learning to live in the absence. "Dearest 34871 Ho Wai-ho," she wrote, "as a star you will forever watch over us." It is the language of grief transformed into something else—not acceptance, perhaps, but a kind of reaching upward, a way of saying that the person who is gone has not truly left the world, only changed form.
The fire at Wang Fuk Court remains one of Hong Kong's deadliest disasters in recent memory. Ho was one of many who rushed toward the danger when others fled. That he is being remembered now, not just in the city where he lived and worked but in the permanent catalog of celestial objects, speaks to something people seem to need: a way to say that some lives matter so much that they deserve to be written into the structure of the universe itself. Whether that belief is literal or metaphorical hardly seems to matter. The impulse behind it is real.
Notable Quotes
This asteroid may not be visible to the human eye, but the essence it represents is genuine and eternal. Ho Wai-ho's name will remain forever in the solar system.— William Yeung, astronomer
Dearest 34871 Ho Wai-ho, as a star you will forever watch over us.— Kiki, Ho Wai-ho's fiancée
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why name an asteroid after a firefighter? There are countless ways to memorialize someone.
Because an asteroid lasts. A plaque can fade or be forgotten. A name in the sky stays there, catalogued and permanent, long after everyone who knew him is gone.
But Ho Wai-ho can't see it. His fiancée can't point to it in the night sky.
No. That's the point Yeung made—it's not visible to the naked eye. But that doesn't make it less real. It's a different kind of witness. The universe knows his name now.
Do you think his fiancée finds comfort in that?
I think she's trying to. She's reframing his absence as a kind of presence. "Forever watch over us." It's a way of saying he hasn't left, just transformed into something that can't be lost.
168 people died in that fire. Why does Ho get an asteroid?
Because he died trying to save them. Because someone—William Yeung—knew him or knew his story, and had the means to do this. It's not that the others matter less. It's that this particular man's courage was witnessed and honored in a way that happened to be possible.
What does it mean that his name will be in the solar system forever?
It means that long after Hong Kong changes, long after everyone alive today is gone, the record will still exist. Somewhere in the catalog of minor planets, 34871 Ho Wai-ho will be there. That's a kind of immortality—not spiritual, just factual. His name becomes part of the permanent structure of how we understand the cosmos.