A public hearing into the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire was briefly halted by its own fire alarm on Monday, before a grieving resident testified that repeated safety warnings about on-site smoking and renovation issues were ignored by both the contractor and the Urban Renewal Authority (URA).
The alarm, which sounded at around 11.30am during a recess, forced attendees, including legal representatives, members of the public, and media, to evacuate outside the City Gallery in Central.
Firefighters were deployed to conduct an inspection. The alarm stopped after about 15 minutes, and the hearing resumed at around noon.
Chairman David Lok Kai-hong called the incident "moving," suggesting a working alarm at the estate on the day of the blaze might have changed the tragic outcome.
Senior Counsel Victor Dawes, the lead lawyer for the independent committee, continued to lead residents to give evidence during the hearing.
Sdanni Yip Ka-kui, a resident of Wang Tai House who lost his wife in the fire, said that residents had long complained about on-site smoking during the major renovation works at the estate.
He once found cigarette butts outside a bathroom window that he believed were not from local cigarettes. Despite showing photographic evidence of cigarette butts to the contractor, Prestige Construction & Engineering, the problem persisted.
Yip also raised concerns that scaffolding nets replaced after a typhoon were thinner but said the contractor’s director, Gordon Ho Kin-yip, “merely smiled” and did not respond when shown photos.
Yip said that he and two other residents raised alleged irregularities in the renovation contract with two representatives from the Urban Renewal Authority (URA).
He was told the URA would have independent consultants review the documents but later learned the URA informed the owners’ corporation that it was only a funder and would not pursue the issues, advising them to contact the consultant—the very party they were complaining about.
URA counsel Ross Yuen asked Yip if he knew the URA had in fact replied by email. Yip said he did not, as the owners’ corporation had not met on the matter. Yuen said the URA’s reply email would be submitted to the committee.
Yip also raised concerns about proxy voting, saying he once saw staff from property management ISS EastPoint place a ballot box on the table after in-person votes, after which many proxy votes were added.
He and his wife were once barred from a sewage-works vote while many unfamiliar people attended—a pattern he said recurs at major votes.
Another resident, Lam Yin-ming, testified that she was warned of the fire by Yip’s late wife, allowing her to escape.
Lam corroborated the earlier testimony, stating she had also repeatedly complained to management about workers smoking near the scaffolding.
Expressing her gratitude to Yip, she hoped the hearing would uncover the truth and deliver justice for the victims.
