Hong Kong leader apologises, housing chief resigns over Tai Po fire

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee apologised on Thursday for the fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the northern suburban district of Tai Po. The fire began in November and spread across seven buildings. It killed 168 people and displaced thousands of others.

Housing Secretary Winnie Ho resigned on Wednesday. Lee said she should bear political responsibility, though no personal wrongdoing was found.

An independent committee found that the Housing Bureau's independent checking unit failed in its supervision of the maintenance work at the complex. Lee said the Buildings Department, Fire Services Department and Labour Department also had shortcomings in supervising fire hazards there.

A three-month investigation will now examine whether staff in the four government agencies were derelict in their duties. Officials also proposed measures including making bid rigging a criminal offence.

The committee's report said evidence pointed to a lighted cigarette as the cause. The fire started on the flat roof between two first-floor apartments in Wang Cheong House. Experts found that foam boards, scaffolding nets that were not fire-retardant, and canvases helped the fire spread. Most of the deaths were caused by smoke inhalation rather than burns.

The committee said Will Power Architects Company and Prestige Construction & Engineering Co. had cut corners. It also said registered contractors and professionals lent their names to statutory forms for a fee without doing substantive work. The report said of them: "There is no doubt that they are the main culprits responsible for the occurrence of the inferno and the high fatalities in the tragic incident." It added: "However ... deception succeeded because the regulators' own practices enabled it."

Seven people and the two companies, Will Power and Prestige, have been charged in criminal investigations with offences including manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud. Authorities allege the companies and some defendants hid the previous litigation records of the firm awarded the renovation contract, which was worth more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars.