The HK$4.4 billion (US$564 million) donated for Tai Po fire victims will grow gradually with interest earned from fixed deposits, the home affairs minister has told the Post, adding the money will also fund long-term resettlement. In an exclusive interview with the Post on Friday, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak Mei-kuen said…
A 78-year-old man has died in a fire suspected to have started from burning mugwort, a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine, in a flat at a public housing estate in Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung district. Police said they received a report at 12.41pm on Wednesday that a fire had broken out at Cho Yiu…
Hong Kong’s newly elected lawmakers, many of them fresh faces on the political scene, held their first meeting on Wednesday, with officials pledging to address policy gaps exposed by the deadly Tai Po inferno, from tightening oversight of maintenance project tenders and raising homeowner voting thresholds to imposing a smoking ban at construction sites. Wednesday…
Rebuilding the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court on its original site to rehouse displaced residents will be “immensely challenging” because of complex legal and property rights issues, a senior Hong Kong official has said, adding that a cash buy-back would be the “fastest and most flexible” solution. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun, who led the…
Hong Kong authorities have replaced Tai Po district officer Eunice Chan Hau-man, who recently apologised for her choice of attire at the funeral of the firefighter who died in the catastrophic Wang Fuk Court fire. Two government sources told the Post on Tuesday that her removal was not triggered by the episode, but had been…
Hong Kong police have informed some families who lost their loved ones in the tragic Tai Po fire that a full list of the 161 deceased will be made public, the Post has learned. Six weeks after Wang Fuk Court fire, Hong Kong’s deadliest in decades, two residents who lost family members told the Post…
A 56-year-old man has died in a suspected electrical fire that ripped through a high-rise flat in Hong Kong’s northwest New Territories, prompting the evacuation of around 320 residents. Police said on Sunday that the man was taken to Pok Oi Hospital, where he was later certified dead. A 54-year-old woman found at the scene…
A 56-year-old man has died in a suspected electrical fire that ripped through a high-rise flat in Hong Kong’s northwest New Territories, prompting the evacuation of around 320 residents. Police said on Sunday that the man was taken to Pok Oi Hospital, where he was later certified dead. A 54-year-old woman found at the scene…
A fire believed to have been caused by a short circuit in a household appliance broke out at a Hong Kong public housing estate in east Kowloon, prompting more than 300 residents to flee their flats. Police on Thursday reported receiving multiple calls about a fire at Lam Wai House in Lam Tin Estate, at…
The owners’ committee of the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Hong Kong has rejected accusations of poor transparency and accountability as a “baseless smear campaign”, issuing a lengthy report ahead of a legal process to dissolve the group. In a 183-page report issued on Monday to fellow owners of Wang Fuk Court in…