Tai Po fire probe: Housing Bureau’s checking unit failed to follow up on safety issues – as it happened
Committee’s lead counsel presses Independent Checking Unit officer on its responsibilities and whether it had properly overseen key safety issues
All eyes were on the Hong Kong Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) on Wednesday, as one of its officers testified before a judge-led panel about its role in the Tai Po blaze.
Senior maintenance surveyor Andy Ku Siu-ping was the only witness giving testimony in the first of three sessions of the fourth round of evidential hearings.
The ICU, responsible for overseeing maintenance of government-built residential complexes, had been repeatedly criticised for failing to act on residents’ complaints about flammable polyfoam boards and substandard scaffolding mesh at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court before the fire.
Pressed by committee lead counsel Victor Dawes to explain the unit’s responsibilities on Wednesday morning, Ku admits the ICU had failed to properly monitor safety issues such as the use of substandard scaffolding and flammable styrofoam boards.
ICU surveyors had allegedly “tipped off” the project consultant before inspecting the fire retardancy of scaffolding nets.
In written submissions, the unit’s officers said they could not act on the use of polyfoam boards because no regulations governed their temporary use – a claim rebutted by the Buildings Department before the committee.
The fire broke out at the residential estate on November 26, 2025, when it was undergoing facade renovation. The blaze was Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, killing 168 people and displacing almost 5,000.
At a previous session of the hearing, the committee heard that the Urban Renewal Authority – which oversees the Smart Tender system through which Wang Fuk Court homeowners selected Will Power Architects as project consultant and Prestige Engineer and Construction as the main contractor – had a limited role in addressing alleged bid-rigging in the project.
Peter Wong Se-king, the authority’s director of building rehabilitation, conceded that the Smart Tender system could not effectively tackle tender manipulation and might give residents a “false sense of security”, vowing to address the issue through a strengthened system.
Follow our live reporting as the hearing continues.
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