‘Regulatory vacuum’: Hong Kong fire probe reveals confusion over safety roles

A public inquiry into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has exposed confusion among government agencies over their roles in supervising large renovation projects, with a fire services officer insisting on Wednesday that his department was not responsible for handling complaints about flammable building materials because it lacked construction expertise.

Hours after the hearing, the Fire Services Department announced it would launch a new mechanism this month for handling cases involving fire safety in buildings. Cases that fell under the jurisdiction of other government units would be referred to the most appropriate department for follow-up action with the complainant’s consent.

If the relevant department objected to the referral, said the case would be escalated to senior management for cross-departmental coordination, it said.

Michael Yung Kam-hung, an assistant director of the Fire Services Department, said on Wednesday it did not take legal action over breaches discovered during Wang Fuk Court’s exterior overhaul, as it could not determine which materials or arrangements were integral to the project.

“We do not know how it would affect the project’s progress if we arbitrarily decide that certain materials cannot be used,” he told an independent committee investigating the disaster at the estate.

Yung also said there was a tacit understanding among departments over which authority should handle fire safety concerns.