Fire safety
An inquiry heard that a fire services company conducted no on-site checks and merely rubber-stamped 85 shutdown notices for a housing estate's hose reel system before Hong Kong's deadliest blaze in decades. A Fire Services Department official testified that another contractor failed to alert authorities after finding the estate's fire water tanks drained and power switches for hose reels and alarms turned off. The revelations emerged at the ninth hearing into the November fire in Tai Po that killed 168 people.
Imeripotiwa na AI
The independent committee probing the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po held its first evidential session, uncovering six human factors behind the near-total failure of fire safety measures. Leading counsel Victor Dawes SC highlighted denials of responsibility by the Labour Department, Fire Services Department, and Housing Bureau's Independent Checking Unit for the HK$336 million project. Details also emerged on the death of firefighter Ho Wai-ho amid the November inferno that killed 168.