3 December, 2025
Author: Chan Ying
The horrendous fire in Wang Fuk Court, Tai Po is the worst in living memory for Hong Kong residents. Videos show flames rapidly sweeping up inflammable external netting, with winds spreading the fire across the blocks. The death toll so far is 156, with more yet to be accounted for. Nearly 40% of around 4,800 people in the complex are aged 65 or above.
The eight 31-storey tower blocks were built in 1983 under the then colonial government’s subsidised purchase scheme for low income families. There are 2,000-odd densely packed apartments (8 apartments per floor, about 450 sq ft each). Hundreds of similar blocks were built in the 80s, no doubt inspired by the Thatcher government’s “Right to Buy” 1980 Housing Act. Typically, they had narrow corridors, thin glass windows and lacked modern safety features such as sprinkler systems and refuge floors. Like Wang Fuk Court, many are now undergoing extensive renovation.
The authorities first attributed the styrofoam covering thin windows as the most likely cause of the fire rapidly entering the inside of the blocks, generating lethal toxic fumes and extreme high temperatures. Fire services reported that all the fire alarms had malfunctioned. This is so unusual that residents are speculating that they were switched off during renovation.
Although the HK government arrested a number of people connected with the renovation programme, it is struggling to control the narrative against a public outcry over the causes of this man-made tragedy. Citizens are expressing widespread frustrations, built up over the decades, about the construction industry’s corrupt practices, use of cheap sub-standard materials, as well as the government’s ineffective regulatory oversight. E.g. fire-retardant netting is legally required but is twice as expensive, and can only be used once because it deteriorates under strong sunlight, making it an obvious target for cost-cutting and corruption.
Government
People accuse the government’s subsequent announcements about its policy to replace bamboo with iron scaffolding as a diversion from the real causes of the disaster. Bamboo scaffolding is part of Hong Kong’s cultural heritage, it is sustainable, highly flexible and has served Hong Kong well for many decades.
Anticipating government inspections, many contractors are hurriedly removing netting and foam from building renovations, while angry residents are seizing samples of these materials to conduct tests.
Colonial Hong Kong used to follow the UK practice of using judge-led commissions of inquiry, but not any more. There was no public inquiry over Covid. On this occasion, it has announced an internal inter-departmental inquiry.
After listening to a government official announcing they would press on with phasing out bamboo scaffolding, University student Miles Kwan launched a petition calling for accommodation for displaced residents and an independent investigation to probe regulatory neglect, potential conflicts of interest and to review the supervision system for construction as well as to hold government officials accountable. The next day Kwan was arrested on suspicion of sedition. His online petition is no longer accessible, but a second petition has since been started by a former Tai Po resident living overseas.
Imran Khan, who represented the bereaved and survivors of Grenfell, said that Hong Kong now needs a public inquiry with court-like powers because “an internal investigation will not get to the truth and there will be no faith in it…” Based on his experience with Grenfell residents, he said “without justice they cannot grieve.” HK’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has ordered an “independent review committee”, which however lacks the powers that a Commission of Inquiry would bring.
In Hong Kong, the heroic fire service does not have independent trade union representation. In the UK, the FBU has a strong track record of defending fire fighters and the public. Its recent publication,Culpable: Deregulation, Austerity and the Causes of the Grenfell Tower Fire, written by Paul Hampton, contains key lessons not just for the UK but for Hong Kong and many cities across the world.
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