Tai Po fire: estate manager deemed ‘pitiful’, but denies acting as consultant

Counsel representing independent committee, government and other parties to all deliver final submissions from Wednesday to Friday An independent, judge-led committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will hear closing submissions from legal representatives, following 27 sessions of evidential hearings. Counsel representing the committee, the government and other parties are expected to deliver their final submissions before the panel from Wednesday to Friday, after which it will proceed to finalise a report due in about a month. A deadly blaze broke out at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po on November 26, 2025. The fire engulfed seven of the estate’s eight buildings, killing 168 people and displacing nearly 5,000 residents, making it the city’s worst inferno since 1948. At the time of the incident, Wang Fuk Court was undergoing a HK$336 million facade renovation after the owners’ corporation selected the most expensive option, raising suspicions of bid-rigging. In the previous round of hearings, the committee, chaired by Justice David Lok Kai-hong, heard evidence from experts appointed by both the government and the panel.

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