Deadly Tai Po fire revealed ‘unacceptable systemic failings’, inquiry hears

Contractors for a renovation project at the site of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades got away with covering up the use of substandard material because of systemic defects in government supervision, a public inquiry into the blaze that claimed 168 lives has heard. In the first of a series of evidential hearings, a judge-led independent committee was told on Thursday that six “human factors” led to the almost complete failure of fire safety measures at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court before seven ...

By Brian Wong,Leopold Chen,Oscar Liu