Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire tragedy
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Public hearing outlines 6 key failures behind Tai Po fire – as it happened

Lead barrister Victor Dawes says messages show substandard scaffolding mesh was used by contractors, while a cigarette ‘most likely’ caused the blaze

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Video evidence at the public hearing show that one of the buildings at Wang Fuk Court became engulfed in less than two minutes. Photo: Sam Tsang
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Introduction
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The first session of a public evidential hearing into a fire that engulfed a residential complex in Hong Kong and killed 168 people began on Thursday, nearly four months after the disaster.

Ordered by the city’s leader and overseen by a judge-led independent committee, the hearings are meant to “clarify the relevant facts through oral evidence, written submissions, and other forms of evidence presented by witnesses”.

The committee was tasked with identifying any systemic problems related to large-scale building maintenance and renovation works following the blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po.

Fourteen members of the housing estate’s former owners’ corporation and seven other residents are among the 37 people named as “involved parties”.

Follow our live updates on the hearing and what it means for the victims.

More from our coverage:

- Wang Fuk Court homeowners, residents to give evidence in fire probe
- Wang Fuk Court homeowners to petition Hong Kong’s John Lee for meeting
- Wang Fuk Court residents in resettlement limbo slam ‘unhelpful’ engagement officers
- Hong Kong fire inquiry finds key clues of systemic failures

Reporting by Brian Wong, Leopold Chen, Oscar Liu and Connor Mycroft

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