Hong Kong authorities have pledged to intervene in landlord-tenant disputes preventing residents from retrieving belongings from the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court, as packing efforts enter their 10th day. Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said on Wednesday that while the government expected agreement on limited entry quotas, authorities were prepared to make “alternative arrangements” to…
Homeowners of the only block undamaged in the deadly Wang Fuk Court inferno who decline the government’s buy-back offer will face significant challenges in the management and maintenance of their properties in the long run, Hong Kong authorities have warned. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun said on Wednesday that while the government respected homeowners’…
Nearly 80 per cent of homeowners of the only block spared in the deadly Wang Fuk Court blaze in Hong Kong have expressed an initial willingness to sell their flats to the government, exceeding the three-quarters threshold set by authorities to extend a resettlement plan to them. Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun said on…
Government surveyors failed to detect major fire risks at a housing complex destroyed in Hong Kong’s deadliest inferno in decades because they were following outdated guidelines that did not require in-person inspections of renovation works, a public inquiry has heard. The independent committee was told on Monday that illegal alterations to Wang Fuk Court’s emergency…
Grieving relatives of domestic helpers killed in the Tai Po fire have struggled to break the news to victims’ children while fending off scammers targeting their compensation from Hong Kong authorities, according to a workers’ rights advocate after a trip to Indonesia. Esther Tse Yan-yin, an organiser from the Association for the Rights of Industrial…
An image of a Hong Kong construction worker smoking a cigarette while on bamboo scaffolding at a residential building has prompted outrage among internet users, who have drawn comparisons with the suspected cause of the city’s deadliest fire in decades. An image shared on a Facebook page called the Shau Kei Wan Sai Wan Ho…
To Ian Chu, capturing one last image of the sea view from his home before it disappears was a final wish as he returned on Saturday to the scene of the deadly Hong Kong blaze to collect his belongings. Chu lived in Wang Cheong House, one of eight residential blocks at Wang Fuk Court in…
Hon Wing, 77, and his family climbed 19 floors to their fire-ravaged flat in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court housing estate on Tuesday but left almost empty-handed after a two-hour search for valuables. Hon, a retired part-time taxi driver, had hoped to find a bag of change he kept during his work shifts, but “nothing…
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…
Playing one last song on a piano that cannot be retrieved from a fire-ravaged home is among the wishes of residents returning to the scene of the deadly Tai Po blaze, with one man climbing stairs on a fractured leg to try and recover a water boiler linked to his childhood memories. Some of those…