The independent committee tasked with investigating Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po blaze has finished 21 sessions of evidential hearings in three rounds, pointing to multiple apparent loopholes in the supervision of the estate’s renovation project and the government’s regulation of fire hazards. The inferno broke out on November 26 last year when all eight blocks…
Almost half of notices filed to deactivate fire-fighting systems over the past two years for maintenance involved renovation projects that lasted longer than the maximum two months allowed under new rules introduced after the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire, official data has shown. A spokesman for the Fire Services Department told the South China Morning…
Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department has yet to launch prosecutions in 34 cases involving mini-storage premises that failed to comply with safety hazard orders, including sites first inspected as far back as 2016, the Audit Commission has said. The commission also revealed on Wednesday that none of the 249 industrial buildings required to improve fire…
Hong Kong authorities launched 18 joint operations against illicit refuelling stations this year amid a global energy price surge, with the customs chief noting the practice has become increasingly common in urban areas. But Commissioner for Customs and Excise Chan Tsz-tat said on Saturday that despite the upwards trend, illegal refuelling was not widespread locally….
Hong Kong authorities are planning to launch a public consultation over a raft of new fire safety-related requirements and offences with tough penalties following the city’s deadliest blaze in decades. Confirming an earlier report by the South China Morning Post, the Security Bureau on Friday laid out its planned amendments to the Fire Services Ordinance,…
Hong Kong’s fire services chief has acknowledged that better communication with building authorities is needed after an independent committee earlier revealed that his officers had taken no action against possible safety breaches during renovations at Wang Fuk Court, where 168 people were killed in last year’s inferno. But Director of Fire Services Andy Yeung Yan-kin…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The head of the Fire Services Department will give evidence on the 19th day of evidential hearings into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, becoming the most senior official to testify to date. Director…
Hong Kong’s fire services declined to activate an emergency alert during the city’s deadliest inferno in decades, citing concerns that it might have caused confusion among trapped residents, a public inquiry has heard. An independent committee investigating last year’s disaster at Wang Fuk Court was also told on Thursday that the system, which would have…
Hong Kong authorities have proposed new offences with tougher punishments for fire installation contractors who fail to obtain prior approval before deactivating firefighting systems or do not report malfunctions within 24 hours, in the wake of the city’s deadliest fire in decades, the South China Morning Post has learned. Other proposed changes included drastically increasing…
A public inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has shed light on government departments’ confusion over their roles in supervising large-scale renovation projects, with a fire service official insisting his department was not responsible for handling complaints about flammable building materials because it lacked expertise in construction. Michael Yung Kam-hung, an assistant director…