Deadly Wang Fuk Court fire inquiry blames contractor and consultant
An independent inquiry into the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po has severely condemned the main contractor and engineering consultant for gross negligence, deceptive compliance and unlawful practices that caused catastrophic casualties.
An independent inquiry report into the deadly fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po has severely condemned the main contractor and engineering consultant for gross negligence, deceptive compliance, and unlawful practices that caused catastrophic casualties.
The inquiry identified main contractor Prestige Construction & Engineering Co. Limited, engineering consultant Will Power Architects Company Limited, and several key executives as the principal culprits behind the disaster, accusing them of prioritising corporate profit over resident lives. Both companies face criminal charges, including manslaughter.
Investigators revealed that the firms arranged figurehead professionals, including a nominal registered inspector, to rubber-stamp statutory filings, fabricating an illusion of compliance while key firefighting systems failed during the blaze. The report detailed an extensive catalogue of operational failures overseen by Prestige Construction without supervisory intervention from Will Power Architects.
The contractor repeatedly submitted suspected forged certificates for scaffold netting, concealed failed combustion tests, and deleted inspection footage before secretly replacing damaged sections with cheap, non-retardant materials. Chronic worker smoking on site was left uncurbed despite persistent resident complaints. The rapid spread of the fire was further exacerbated by Prestige Construction encasing all eight residential towers simultaneously in scaffolding, combustible netting, and flammable Styrofoam window coverings to save costs.
Ignoring requests from the newly elected owners' corporation to stage the works sequentially, the contractor kept the materials in place for over a year. Compounding the hazard, Prestige Construction cut unauthorised worker openings into fire-rated emergency exit staircases with immediate approval from Will Power Architects, fatally compromising building compartmentation and resident evacuation routes.
The report also scrutinised the contentious involvement of former Tai Po District Councillor Peggy Wong Pik-kiu, who served as an informal advisor to the estate's former management committee between 2021 and 2024. While Wong maintained that her voluntary role involved no decision-making power or financial interests, inquiry findings revealed that she mobilised significant proxy votes during critical meetings.
In two pivotal assemblies, she ranked as the fifth-largest proxy holder, controlling between 20 and 25 per cent of all submitted ballots despite initially claiming she had gathered only a minimal amount. Witnesses raised serious allegations during hearings, asserting that Wong led door-to-door proxy drives, appeared at meetings with outside figures who allegedly intimidated outspoken residents, and warned owners that unseating the incumbent committee would risk losing public renovation subsidies. Wong firmly rejected claims of wrongdoing. Senior Counsel Victor Dawes observed that given the estate's fraught tendering disputes, residents' deep suspicions regarding her role were fully understandable. The committee concluded that while no direct evidence established anti-competitive conduct or bid-rigging on her part, any covert wrongdoing remained an issue for law enforcement authorities to investigate.
