The independent committee investigating the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will postpone submitting its report by a month to the end of October, attributing the delay to the complexity of issues and the large volume of documents it must review. The committee announced on Tuesday that it had sought approval from Chief…
An independent inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has released further details about the final moments of fallen firefighter Ho Wai-ho, who died in the line of duty while responding to the blaze at Wang Fuk Court last November. An interim report from an interdepartmental fire investigation task force was released by the…
Two directors of a contractor linked to the deadly inferno at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court have denied all allegations of bid-rigging, corruption and collusion with consultants, with one saying he was never told the housing estate’s fire safety system had any problems. A district councillor, Peggy Wong Pik-kiu, who has been criticised for her…
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,…
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…
Residents of Hong Kong’s blaze-ravaged Wang Fuk Court would still have died even if the housing estate’s fire alarms had been working during last year’s inferno, a contractor has suggested, prompting the judge overseeing a public inquiry into the disaster to question whether he was attempting to evade responsibility. Legal counsel for a director of…
Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades was a result of a “systemic failure” in public policy, two fire engineering experts have said, citing the lack of strategies to fight flames on the facades of high-rise buildings and the prolonged use of combustible materials in “temporary” works. An independent committee inquiry heard on Thursday that last…
An independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has ruled out seeking statutory powers to compel witnesses to testify, a move that has left some survivors concerned that key figures may avoid scrutiny. Committee chairman Justice David Lok Kai-hong said the panel would not ask the chief executive to convert it into a…
The “mechanical mindset” of Hong Kong building authorities has come under scrutiny at a hearing into the city’s deadliest fire in decades, with a former inspection director conceding his team had “blindly” followed outdated guidelines when deciding not to conduct on-site audits of renovation works at the housing estate ravaged in the blaze. Rudolf Lau…
A Hong Kong building inspector mistook illegal alterations to emergency staircases at a housing estate ravaged in a deadly fire for protective measures on “broken” windows, because he based his assessment solely on documents and did not carry out a site visit, a public inquiry has heard. Senior maintenance surveyor Nick Yung Siu-lun, the head…