Hong Kong officials warned of tower fire risk days before killer blaze

By Nectar Gan and Venus Feng

  Hong Kong authorities warned renovators of a high-rise complex about fire hazards one week before the housing estate was wrecked by the city’s deadliest fire in decades, raising questions over whether officials did enough to prevent the disaster. 

The Hong Kong Labour Department said it had inspected the eight-tower housing bloc 16 times since renovation work started in July last year. Members of the public had complained about “issues relating to the scaffolding” in September 2024, it added in a statement emailed on Thursday to Bloomberg News.

 

Multiple written warnings were issued to the contractor about the need to adopt appropriate fire safety measures at the estate then home to 4,600 people, including after the most recent inspection on Nov. 20, the department added.

 

Inspectors also “consistently monitored” the installation of netting wrapped around the towers and found its quality certificate met official fire-proof standards, according to the statement.

 

The bamboo poles and nets that once encased the now burnt-out building have become the focus of an investigation into a blaze that incinerated the 2,000-apartment complex and killed 94 people. Questions of culpability are at the center of that probe, after authorities arrested three senior figures at the engineering firm conducting the renovations on suspicion of manslaughter.

 

“It’s premature to pass judgment on any officials or even on companies involved,” Hong Kong Legislative Council member Regina Ip told Bloomberg Television on Friday. “I think the government should take a good look at our existing legislation, and whether there are gaps in the requirements about fire retardant materials.”

 

Ip also questioned building management mechanisms that rely on owners who’re unpaid volunteers to supervise renovation works. “There have always been complaints about the awarding of contracts because there’s a lot of competition for this lucrative work,” she said. 

 

The death toll now exceeds the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which killed 72 people in June 2017. That blaze was later deemed to be the result of a “catalogue of failures” by the government and construction industry.  

 

Authorities haven’t clarified how many Wang Fuk Court residents remain missing, only saying crews will confirm the number after they finish a unit-by-unit sweep of the buildings.

 

The HK$315.5 million ($40.6 million) renovation project at the housing estate in northern Hong Kong was being conducted by Prestige Construction & Engineering Co. That company is involved in 11 other residential building projects in Hong Kong, according to the government.

 

Prestige had previously breached safety requirements on other construction projects, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Labour Department records. It was convicted of two safety offences in a project on Hong Kong island in November 2023, according to the records seen by SCMP, which only cover offenses dating back two years.

 

Bloomberg News visited the company’s office Thursday, but the shutters were down and no one responded. Phone calls to the office went unanswered. The Labour Department didn’t immediately reply to an emailed request for comment on the company’s previous offenses.

 

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire.

 

Secretary for Security Chris Tang said investigators had found foam boards covering windows in the single building in the eight-tower complex that escaped the flames. “These foam boards are highly flammable and the fire spread very quickly, so we found their presence unusual,” he added. 

 

Netting and plastic sheeting encasing the towers also burned far more intensely than expected, he said. 

 

The fire destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of residents, many of whom are staying in temporary shelters or with family and friends. Some spent the night inside a shopping mall near the estate, whose hallways were lined by mattresses and camping tents on Friday morning.

 

Hong Kong insurers may face record claims from the city’s worst fire in more than half a century.

 

China Taiping Insurance Holdings confirmed in a statement that it is the insurer of the Wang Fuk Court renovation project. The company’s estimated HK$2.6 billion ($334 million) exposure, after factoring reinsurance and taxes, could be about 1-2% of net assets as of June, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. 

 

The Kimpton Hotel fire in 2023 was previously the city’s largest fire insurance event, with Ping An being the lead underwriter on coverage of about HK$2.6 billion.