7 hours ago
3
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
They saw it coming.
Before the fire ripped through their homes and raged for two days, before it killed many of their neighbors and friends, residents of the Wang Fuk Court estate spent years warning Hong Kong officials about a renovation project they feared was becoming dangerous.
The government had ordered repairs on the eight aging towers in the complex. But residents complained they were paying extortionate sums for shoddy work that used flammable materials, and they suspected it was because a corrupt syndicate had taken over the project.
They told the authorities that the leaders of the owners’ board and the construction firms were acting at times against residents’ interests and safety. They told local news media that a politician was most likely working with the board’s leaders. At least one resident burned a piece of the polystyrene foam used in the renovation to show how easily it caught fire.
Their complaints led various government agencies to conduct inspections and to issue warnings, notices and citations to the contractor. But there were also mixed messages, and no one stepped in to address the dangers on the whole. In an email to residents, one official described the fire risk from netting on the scaffolding as “relatively low.”
Image
What caused the fire is still unclear. Officials have focused on substandard materials, including the netting used to catch debris and the foam panels protecting windows, both of which had been the subject of complaints by the residents as far back as August 2024.
