Hong Kong's housing chief resigns as inquiry blames 'decades of failure' for deadliest fire in decades
An independent committee's report into the Wang Fuk Court blaze that killed 168 people singled out four government departments for accountability, and Chief Executive John Lee says Housing Secretary Winnie Ho must bear political responsibility.
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By Pacific Post Staff·Published
A man looks up at the fire-scarred, scaffolding-wrapped towers of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, Hong Kong · Source: Leung Man Hei/Bloomberg
Hong Kong's housing secretary resigned this week after an independent inquiry into the Wang Fuk Court fire, the city's deadliest blaze in decades, found that government oversight of the public housing estate's maintenance work had failed for years before the tragedy.
The fire broke out on November 26, 2025, at the government-subsidized Tai Po estate, which was undergoing large-scale renovation at the time, and tore through seven 31-story towers wrapped in the bamboo scaffolding and green netting commonly used on Hong Kong construction sites. It killed 168 people, making it the city's deadliest fire in decades. Investigators later traced the cause to a lit cigarette that ignited on a flat roof between two apartments at Wang Cheong House, one of the complex's towers.
An independent committee's report, released nearly 11 months after the blaze, described "decades of failure" behind the disaster and singled out four government bodies for accountability: the Housing Bureau's Independent Checking Unit, which it found bore the greatest responsibility for failing to supervise the renovation work; the Fire Services Department; the Buildings Department; and the Labour Department. The report also assigned blame to the main renovation contractor, the project's consultant and an inspector involved in the work. Separately, seven people and two companies have been criminally charged over the fire, facing counts that include manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud.
Chief Executive John Lee apologized at a news conference Thursday, where he and seven other senior officials bowed before the cameras. Lee said Housing Secretary Winnie Ho should bear political responsibility for the failures identified in the report, even though investigators found no evidence of personal wrongdoing on her part. Ho had already resigned the day before the report's release. Lee pledged reforms to the oversight system the inquiry found had broken down.
