An administrative “honour system” that relied on Hong Kong’s private sector to regulate itself created oversight loopholes and left obvious fire hazards at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate unchecked before last year’s inferno, legal counsel for an independent committee investigating the disaster has said. In the final session of 30 days of public hearings, Victor Dawes SC said on Friday that the contractor and consultant behind the estate’s HK$336 million renovation project deserved the...
Legal counsel for an independent panel investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will deliver its closing remarks at the final public inquiry session on Friday. The 600-page closing statement is expected to cover the causes of the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, as well as the roles and responsibilities of each involved party. The blaze that broke out on November 26, 2025, killed 168 people and displaced nearly 5,000. The estate was undergoing a HK$336 million renovation project at...
Hong Kong authorities’ role in last year’s deadly Wang Fuk Court blaze was secondary to that of construction and fire service firms, which either conspired to circumvent supervision or neglected their statutory duties, a government counsel has argued. Wrapping up the government’s arguments at an independent committee inquiry into the tragedy, Jenkin Suen SC on Thursday attributed the inferno to the “deceit, inaction and deliberate omission” of contractors who exploited regulatory regimes founded...