Tai Po fire probe: Housing Bureau’s checking unit failed to follow up on safety issues

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.All eyes are on the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU), whose officers are scheduled to testify before a judge-led panel on Wednesday about their role in Hong Kong’s Tai Po blaze.Senior maintenance surveyor Andy Ku Siu-ping will be the only witness giving live evidence in the first of three sessions of the fourth round of evidential hearings.The unit, responsible for overseeing maintenance of government-built residential complexes, has long been criticised for failing to act on residents’ complaints about flammable polyfoam boards and substandard scaffolding mesh at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court before the fire.Pressed by committee lead counsel Victor Dawes to explain the ICU’s responsibilities on Wednesday morning, Ku admits the unit had failed to properly monitor safety issues such as the use of substandard scaffolding and flammable polyfoam boards.The inferno broke out at the residential estate on November 26, 2025, when it was undergoing facade renovation. The blaze was Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, killing 168 people and displacing almost 5,000.ICU surveyors had also allegedly “tipped off” the project consultant before inspecting the fire retardancy of scaffolding nets.In written submissions, the unit’s officers said they could not act on the use of polyfoam boards because no regulations governed their temporary use – a claim rebutted by the Buildings Department before the committee.At a previous session, the committee heard that the Urban Renewal Authority, which oversees the Smart Tender system through which Wang Fuk Court homeowners selected Will Power Architects as project consultant and Prestige Engineer and Construction as the main contractor, had a limited role in addressing alleged bid-rigging in the project.Peter Wong Se-king, the authority’s director of building rehabilitation, conceded that the Smart Tender system could not effectively tackle tender manipulation and might give residents a “false sense of security”, vowing to address the issue through a strengthened system.Follow our live reporting as the hearing continues.More of our coverage: