Tai Po fire: building authorities slammed at inquiry for ‘mechanical mindset’

The “mechanical mindset” of Hong Kong building authorities has come under scrutiny at a hearing into the city’s deadliest fire in decades, with a former inspection director conceding his team had “blindly” followed outdated guidelines when deciding not to conduct on-site audits of renovation works at the housing estate ravaged in the blaze.Rudolf Lau Fu-kwok, who was the head of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit when the fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court last November, said on Friday that the old supervision mechanism relied solely on engineering firms to regulate themselves and residents reporting any alleged malpractice to authorities.He acknowledged that the process had created a “blind spot” in government supervision in cases where residents were unaware of the dangers posed by a particular practice, such as the lack of complaints arising from illegal alterations to the estate’s emergency staircases during a HK$336 million (US$42.9 million) renovation project.