Tai Po fire probe: experts propose tighter rules and wider reforms – as it happened
Curbs on combustible facades, smarter fire monitoring, tighter renovation rules and review of Hong Kong’s building standards among recommendations
Polytechnic University professors Asif Usmani and Jiang Liming testified at the final session of a public evidential hearing on Thursday.
Their testimonies shed further light on the blaze that broke out at Wang Fuk Court on November 26 last year, while the estate was undergoing renovation.
The blaze lasted for about 43 hours and killed 168 people, making it the city’s deadliest fire since 1948.
Yiu Men-yeung, assistant director for the Fire Services Department’s New Territories South section and the head of the government’s interdepartmental investigation task force, on Wednesday outlined five key factors behind the fire’s heavy death toll of the inferno.
They included the quick spread of the flames and the replacement of fireproof windows at the staircases with movable boards to allow workers’ easy access to the scaffolding, which allowed the fire and smoke to enter the stairways and compromised residents’ means of escape.
Other factors identified by Yiu were exits being blocked by debris, a deactivated fire alarm system and obstructed windows reducing visibility.
The committee also heard on Wednesday that the scaffolding mesh used at the renovation site was non-fire-retardant, which ignited other combustible materials and caused embers to spread to other blocks, leading to the “exponential” growth of fire.
Professor Richard Yuen Kwok-kit, who was appointed as the task force’s fire engineering professional, said the blaze might not have started if the fire-retardant scaffolding mesh had been used.
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