Hong Kong's Fire Services Department will conduct ad hoc checks on high-risk buildings, prioritizing residential blocks with scaffolding nets and those undergoing major renovations due to increased evacuation difficulties during fires.
The Audit Commission revealed that Hong Kong's Fire Services Department has not launched prosecutions in 34 cases involving mini-storage premises that failed to comply with safety hazard orders, including cases dating back to 2016 inspections. None of the 249 industrial buildings required to improve fire safety measures have complied with orders under a 2020 law. The findings come after a deadly blaze at Ngau Tau Kok in June 2016 killed two firefighters and took 108 hours to extinguish, prompting citywide inspections of mini-storage facilities.
The Director of Fire Services Andy Yeung Yan-kin will testify on April 19, 2026 at the independent inquiry into Hong Kong's deadliest fire since 1948, which killed 168 people at Wang Fuk Court housing estate in Tai Po last November. He becomes the most senior official to give evidence to date, with on-site commander Derek Armstrong Chan already defending decisions not to activate the Emergency Alert System and conceding the fire alarm should have been raised earlier.
An independent committee investigating Hong Kong's deadliest fire since 1948 held its 18th day of hearings on Thursday, with three Fire Services Department officers testifying. The November 2025 blaze at Tai Po's Wang Fuk Court killed 168 people and displaced nearly 5,000 residents. Assistant director Michael Yung Kam-hung admitted the department lacked written documentation outlining division of labour with building authorities, and that frontline staff were unclear about their scope of duties.
Three Fire Services Department officers are testifying before a judge-led independent committee investigating the Wang Fuk Court fire that killed 168 people on November 26, 2025. Assistant director Michael Yung Kam-hung admitted the division of labour between the fire service and building authorities was not stipulated in written documents, calling the unclear duties among frontline staff "unacceptable". The blaze engulfed seven of eight buildings undergoing renovation in Tai Po, Hong Kong's deadliest fire since 1948.
