Substandard work, evasion of oversight helped fuel deadly Hong Kong fire, investigators told

An main(a) citizens committee investigating the make of Hong Kong's deadliest discharge in decades heard arguments on how unconventional practices that evaded regulatory oversight turned a small fire into a tragedy, as the investigation neared its conclusion on Friday.

The November blaze spread through seven buildings of an apartment complex, killing 168 people and displacing thousands of residents at Wang Fuk Court in the suburban Tai Po district. Many of the residents now live in temporary housing.

Committee lead lawyer Victor Dawes said the use of non-fire-retardant scaffolding netting was very likely a key reason for the fire's rapid spread at the complex, which was undergoing a major renovation project when the blaze started. Having wooden planks boarding up staircase windows caused plumes of smoke in residents' escape routes, he said.

He said Will Power Architects Company, a consultancy, and Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., the main contractor on the project, cut corners in the work and the materials, in addition to deceiving regulators and homeowners, he said.

Various substandard and improper practices were involved, including faked compliance inspections. Certain professionals responsible for inspections signed documents like a "rubber stamp," Dawes said.

He also criticized the government's reliance on an honour system in overseeing the project, saying relevant departments should bear part of the responsibility.

"When faced with dishonest bad actors, the entire system collapsed," he said.

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Several residents wept during and after the hearing for closing statements, which concluded on Friday. Yip Ka-kui, who lost his wife in the fire, was one of them.

Yip said he was emotional because Dawes's statements showed he tried his best to seek answers for them, even though the final results might not be what they had expected. But he said the arguments from the government's lawyer a day earlier showed the government departments had not learned a lesson.

"Even in the face of such a massive disaster, they cannot bring themselves to take bold and decisive action to completely root out these long-standing bad practices," he said.

Lee Kwok-hung, whose mother and her two domestic helpers died, took issue with the government's comments that others deceived it, questioning why so many had fallen into the lies.

"What kind of salary are they earning? And they were hired just to be deceived by people?" he said.

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On Thursday, lawyer Jenkin Suen, representing the government, acknowledged some systemic vulnerabilities, but said it would be unfair to say government departments were the instigators of the fire. Some professionals and contractors abused a mechanism that aimed to protect the public and betrayed the trust placed in them, he said.

Beyond the fire's cause, the committee was examining whether systemic problems and bid-rigging corruption were involved in large-scale maintenance works.

Dawes on Friday said bid-rigging was common in the city and the situation at Wang Fuk Court was not an isolated case.

Last month, Hong Kong authorities charged seven people, alongside Will Power and Prestige, with offences including manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud over the fire.

Authorities alleged that the two companies and some defendants conspired to defraud the apartment owners by concealing previous litigation records of Prestige and inflating the score given to the firm in a tender analysis report. That eventually led to Prestige being awarded the renovation project, a contract worth more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars (over $53 million Cdn), they said.

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Dawes said the tragedy could not be explained by one simple reason because the problems were intertwined.

The investigating committee led by High Court judge David Lok is expected to give recommendations after reviewing the fire's cause, potential systemic problems and whether existing regulations and penalties are sufficient.

When it was set up in December, the government said the panel would submit a report in nine months. It's not known when the committee's findings will be released.

Its scope does not include possible legal liabilities, which will be handled by law enforcement authorities.

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