The lawyer of a public commission of inquiry has said that the government had an “exhaustible responsibility”. last year’s deadly Tai Po fire as he gave closing statements at an inquest into the fire and its rapid spread.
Senior Councilor Victor Dawes, representing the independent committee, made his closing speech in the City Gallery on Friday. Its closing of 627 pages address was made public on the commission’s website.
The address begins: “The fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po on November 26, 2025 was one of the worst tragedies ever to happen in Hong Kong.”
“Even today, seven months later, the scale of the disaster — the loss of 168 lives and the sudden destruction of a neighborhood that thousands called home, built families and made memories — remains hard to fathom.”
The Wang Fuk Court fire broke out on November 26 last year while the estate was undergoing renovation works. The fire tore through seven of eight buildings on the government-run estate, killing 168 people – including a firefighter – and displacing thousands of residents.
Dawes on Friday said companies overseeing renovation work at the property used unscrupulous means that went unnoticed by the government’s regulatory regime.
Will Power Architects, the consultancy overseeing the HK$330 million renovation at Wang Fuk Court, and Prestige Construction & Engineering, the main contractor, should be “fully punished” for their actions that led to the fire, Dawes said.
“I emphasize that this was caused by persistent fraud, bad materials, false certificates and outright lies,” Dawes said, adding that the government’s honor system was not designed to deal with deliberate fraud. “We need a systematic review to identify the flaws exposed by the fire.”
Dawes said Wang Fuk Court was largely wrapped in fireproof netting on the day of the fire.
He asked the committee to consider that Prestige and another company, Gain Profit, were primarily responsible for procuring and using cheaper non-retarder nets to replace those damaged by the typhoons, while Will Power was responsible for failing to supervise Prestige.
Prestige also installed flammable foam boards over the property’s windows and falsely assured the Housing Bureau’s Independent Inspection Unit (ICU) that they would only be used on three floors at a time to protect the windows from debris.
A registered inspector for Will Power and a fire service installation contractor called China Status “simply acted as rubber stamps, signing documents when they were asked to,” Dawes added.
LIABILITY
Thanking government witnesses for their cooperation and “frank admissions of shortcomings”, Dawes said the government – particularly the ICU, the Department of Fire Services, the Department of Buildings and the Department of Labor – still bore some of the responsibility for the fire.
His remark drew roars of laughter from the public gallery. Some residents of Wang Fuk Court in Thursday seemed unsettled by the government’s submission that it had been “lied”.
“The government had an unenviable responsibility to carry out its regulatory role and protect the lives of residents,” Dawes said on Friday. “We’re not suggesting that the government should bear the ultimate responsibility, but it’s reasonable for the public to expect them to perform … (I) there seems to have been a huge shortfall.”
The government operated on an honor system dependent on self-regulation of contractors, “leaving them effectively without oversight,” he said. “Relying uncritically on the good faith of those it regulated, regulatory bodies left obvious fire risks uninvestigated and unaddressed.”
He reviewed evidence including the ICU’s pre-inspection notices, which allowed Prestige to prepare for the inspections.
The ICU also failed to notice that the fireproof windows had been removed from the emergency stairs to create openings for contractors. Ignoring the irregularity, she did not realize that spot checks should have been performed, Dawes said.
Making recommendations to combat secretive tendering, Dawes proposed strengthening and expanding the scope of the Urban Renewal Authority’s Smart Tender Scheme. He also suggested making disclosure of company court records mandatory and called for reforms to proxy voting rules.
tributes
Closing his submission, Dawes thanked the residents of Wang Fuk Court for their assistance in the hearings and paid tribute to the 168 people who died in the fire.
Conclusion of counsel’s submissions to the Independent Commission BY HKFP
“The lessons of this tragedy will be painful, but only through facing them can we make our home a safer place,” he said. “We once again express our gratitude to the residents who came before the Committee to give evidence – some grieving, others blaming themselves for failings that were never theirs.”
“In line with the practice of previous magistrate-led inquests following major tragedies in Hong Kong, it is right that a full list of the dead forms part of the Committee’s formal record. We honor their memory,” Dawes said. The document contained a complete the list of the dead.
Judge David Lok, who is presiding over the inquiry, spoke after a five-minute adjournment. He said the commission will continue to process evidence from the hearings and upload relevant testimony and documents to its website, provided they do not interfere with ongoing criminal investigations.
“This is how we do justice to those who lost their lives in the fire. Once again, we thank everyone for attending the hearing,” Lok said, ending the hearings.
