An independent, judge-led committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hear closing submissions from legal representatives, following 27 sessions of evidential hearings. Counsel representing the committee, the government and other parties are expected to deliver their final submissions before the panel from Wednesday to Friday, after which it will proceed to finalise a…
Hong Kong’s graft buster has received more than 1.5 times as many corruption complaints concerning building renovation in the first four months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, following heightened public concern over bid-rigging after the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire. In response to the surge in complaints, the Independent Commission Against…
HONG KONG: The government introduced legislative amendments on Tuesday to ban smoking on all construction sites, after a massive fire at a housing complex killed 168 people last year.The city’s deadliest blaze in decades ripped through seven of the eight apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court complex in northern Hong Kong in November.The estate…
An outspoken resident who survived Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has said he will not give any more media interviews after his release following an arrest over alleged government loan fraud. Jason Kong, a former member of the Wang Fuk Court owners’ board. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. “Going forward, I won’t be responding to anything,…
For Hong Kong-based artist Apple Tong Wing-yin, Wang Fuk Court has always been more than a home address. It was a library of her life’s work. Tong, a prominent deaf illustrator and graphic designer who communicates through what she calls her “silent language” of art, kept the many canvases that spoke for her inside her…
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 Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court fire will scrutinise the roles of building and home affairs authorities on the 20th day of evidential hearings. Four witnesses from the Buildings Department…
Residents of Wang Chi House, the only building of the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po which was not directly affected in last November’s fatal fire, briefly return to their flats to retrieve personal belongings. (ADAM LAM / CHINA DAILY) From April 20 to May 4, over 1,700 households displaced by last year’s…
Hong Kong authorities will spend about HK$6.8 billion (US$870 million) to buy back homes damaged in the deadly Tai Po fire from flat owners, offering HK$8,000 to HK$10,500 per square foot as part of a long-term resettlement plan involving HK$4 billion in public funds. Deputy financial secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun unveiled the plan on Saturday,…
Hong Kong’s annual fundraiser, Operation Santa Claus (OSC), has wrapped up its campaign this year, raising more than HK$19 million (US$2.4 million) for charitable projects and victims of the Tai Po fire – nearly double its target. The campaign, launched on November 4, had aimed to raise at least HK$11 million for 13 charitable projects….
Around 85 per cent of insurance claims for damages caused by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades have been settled, with the amount paid out totalling almost HK$510 million (US$65.3 million). The city’s Insurance Authority said on Tuesday that insurers had settled 1,032 claims related to the Tai Po fire that broke out last November,…