Public hearing on Tai Po fire begins with stunning admission: contractor used substandard mesh

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.The first of a series of public evidential hearings into a fire that engulfed a residential complex in Hong Kong and killed at least 168 people begins on Thursday, nearly four months after the disaster.Ordered by the city’s leader and overseen by a judge-led independent committee, the hearings are meant to “clarify the relevant facts through oral evidence, written submissions, and other forms of evidence presented by witnesses”.The committee was tasked with identifying any systemic problems related to large-scale building maintenance and renovation works following the blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po.Fourteen members of the housing estate’s former owners’ corporation and seven other residents are among the 37 people named as “involved parties”.Follow our live updates on the hearing and what it means for the victims. coverage:Reporting by Brian Wong, Leopold Chen, Oscar Liu and Connor Mycroft