The last batch of residents who briefly returned to their flats in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court under a special government arrangement said prayers and left flower bouquets as a final farewell to their fire-ravaged homes. The residents, who were among 79 households that registered to visit Wang Sun House on Wednesday morning, arrived at…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Four officers from Hong Kong’s fire department are testifying on Wednesday before an independent committee investigating the Wang Fuk Court fire, as hearings enter their 17th day. The conflagration, which broke out on November…
A Labour Department official has told an inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po inferno that the temporary removal of fireproof windows from emergency passages in the blaze-hit estate complied with occupational safety protocols, triggering questions on whether the interests of workers and residents are at odds. The inquiry also heard on Tuesday that a…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Hong Kong labour authorities’ handling of Wang Fuk Court residents’ complaints and inspections at the renovation site before the estate was engulfed in an inferno last November will be scrutinised by the independent committee…
Residents have continued searching for memorabilia in their fire-ravaged homes on the second day of pick-up sessions at Wang Fuk Court, with some seeking help from a robotic device and others expressing gratitude to neighbours who saved their lives during the blaze. Wang Sun House residents on the middle floors began returning home on Tuesday,…
A public inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades heard that authorities and representatives of Wang Fuk Court homeowners took no proactive steps against alleged vote rigging at the subsidised housing estate. Jason Kong Cheung-fat, a former management committee member of the owners’ corporation at Wang Fuk Court, said on Monday that the abuse…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. An inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will commence its third set of public evidential hearings on Monday. The sole witness to testify on the day, Kong Cheung-fat, was re-elected into the…
About 270 residents of Hong Kong’s fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court are returning to their flats on Monday to pack their belongings, nearly five months after the deadly blaze, with authorities deploying more than 1,000 staff to assist them. Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said 269 residents from 78 households in Wang Sun House would…
About 1,900 families who lived in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court will return in batches to their fire-ravaged homes from April 20. Nearly five months after the deadly blaze in Tai Po engulfed seven of the estate’s eight buildings, the government arranged for residents to visit the devastated flats to collect their belongings and bid…
For 66-year-old Ming Lee, the only way to get back to his flat in Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court is by walking up 25 flights of stairs, after the deadly inferno at the housing estate last November destroyed seven of its eight buildings, including their lift systems. Undaunted by the physical toll required, the retiree…