Final report of Tai Po fire inquiry panel delayed to late October: source

An independent committee examining the causes of Hong Kong’s deadly Wang Fuk Court blaze will delay submitting its final report to late October, a month later than expected, as more time is needed to review documents, the South China Morning Post has learned.

A source confirmed to the SCMP on Saturday that the judge-led panel’s final report was likely to be submitted to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in late October, rather than September as the committee’s nine-month investigation deadline had suggested.

“We need more time to organise the evidence. There are many documents to review, much new material,” the source said.

Set up in December last year, weeks after the inferno at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court killed 168 people and displaced nearly 5,000, the independent committee was tasked with examining the fire’s causes, existing regulations, whether there were systemic problems concerning large-scale building renovation works and making suggestions on these areas.

The committee began its inquiry on March 19, going through 1 million files and testimonies from 80 witnesses including government officials, Wang Fuk Court residents, workers and fire safety and legal experts.

During the inquiry, the committee’s lead counsel Victor Dawes SC attributed the disaster’s cause to “human factors”, before pointing to a series of systemic regulatory failures and suspected fraudulent acts by contractors.