Authorities probe corruption, negligence in Hong Kong fire

Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has raised questions about corruption and negligence in the renovations of the apartment complex where at least 128 people died.

An intense fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong’s northern suburbs on Wednesday afternoon, with flames covering seven of the eight towers. The complex was home to some 4,800 residents, some of whom had raised safety concerns about the renovations more than year before the fire.

Police on Wednesday arrested three men from a construction company on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They were released on bail but then arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the authority said on Saturday night, pointing to their leadership role in the renovations. ICAC had also previously arrested seven men and one woman associated with the project.

Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but documents posted to the homeowners association’s website showed that the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations. Police have seized boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered on Thursday.

Officials also said they were investigating the materials used, both the netting on the scaffolding and the foam panels covering windows, and their role in the blaze.

For almost a year, some residents at the Wang Fuk Court complex had been raising safety concerns to Hong Kong authorities about the scaffolding materials being used in the renovation project, according to documents reviewed by the AP, specifically about the netting that covered the scaffolding.

Hong Kong’s labour department in a statement on Saturday confirmed it had received such complaints, adding that officials had carried out 16 inspections of Wang Fuk Court’s renovation project since July 2024, and had warned contractors multiple times in writing that they must ensure they met fire safety requirements. The city even carried out an inspection as late as one week before the fire.

The labour department said it had reviewed the product quality certificate of the netting and that it was in line with standards, but that the safety netting had not been the previous target of inspections.

Preliminary investigations showed the fire started on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings. It then spread rapidly as the foam panels caught fire, said Chris Tang, the city’s secretary for security. Police also said they had been looking at the highly flammable foam panels.

“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang said.

The labour department said later on Saturday that three prosecutions were brought against the company over breaches of safety regulations for working at height in the construction and convictions in two of the cases resulted in fines of totaling 30,000 Hong Kong dollars ($3,850).

The company also was fined three times in 2023 for separate violations unrelated to the Tai Po project.

First responders also found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, said Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services. He did not specify how many were not working or if any of the others were.

It took firefighters a day to bring the fire under control, and it was not fully extinguished until Friday morning - some 40 hours after it started.

Crews prioritised apartments from which they had received emergency calls during the blaze but were unable to reach in the hours that the fire burned out of control, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters.

Twelve firefighters were among the 79 people injured in the blaze, and one firefighter was killed.

Even two days after the fire began, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.

While more bodies might be recovered, authorities said, crews have finished their search for anyone living trapped inside.

Associated Press