The administrator of the fire-damaged Wang Fuk Court has reassured residents that the Hong Kong government will assume responsibility for pursuing insurance claims on policies bought by the estate on behalf of owners who sell their flats to authorities under a buy-back plan. But some residents of the Tai Po estate who attended Wednesday’s Zoom…
Wang Fuk Court’s administrator has revealed that HK$180 million (US$22.9 million) has been paid to parties involved in the estate’s renovation project, with the remaining HK$127 million to be refunded to owners displaced by one of Hong Kong’s deadliest fires in decades. The details were disclosed during a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, one of two…
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…
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…
The owners’ corporation of a Hong Kong housing complex devastated in the city’s deadliest fire in decades failed to convince renovation workers to use fire-resistant materials due to the absence of statutory requirements, a public inquiry heard. Tony Tsui Moon-come, chairman of the management committee of the incorporated owners of Wang Fuk Court at the…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee examining the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades will hold its 10th day of evidential hearings on Friday. The Fire Services Department’s handling of shutdown notices for the fire…
An employee of the property management firm at Hong Kong’s inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate has admitted the company failed in its contractual obligations to identify and follow up on fire hazards, while none of its top management testified at an evidential hearing into the disaster. The eighth day of the hearing by the…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An independent committee investigating the cause of Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades is expected to conclude its first round of evidential hearings on Thursday, with the role of the property management firm at…
Staff at the property management company at Hong Kong’s inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate acted with disregard for legal requirements, taking such actions as deactivating the fire safety system despite knowing they needed a registered contractor to do so, an evidential hearing has been told. Victor Dawes, lead counsel for an independent committee investigating…
The seventh session of the independent inquiry into last year’s fire at Wang Fuk Court – Hong Kong’s deadliest in decades – is under way with the focus turning to ISS EastPoint, the estate’s property management firm. The blaze, which started on November 26 last year and raged through seven of Wang Fuk Court’s eight…