Government announces updates on follow-up work on Tai Po fire
The three task forces set up by the Government for the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po - the Task Force on Investigation and Regulation, the Task Force on Emergency Support and Fund-Raising, and the Task Force on Emergency AccommodationArrangements - are making full efforts to follow up on the support, relief, and investigation work related to the incident. Details are as follows.
Financial and welfare support
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For the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po established by the Government, donations received have reached $2.1 billion as of noon today (December 3). In addition to the start-up capital of $300 million from the Government, the fund's total has now reached around $2.4 billion. The fund will be used to assist residents in rebuilding their homes and providing long-term and sustained support.
The Government earlier announced that the Support Fund will provide families of each deceased victim with a token of solidarity of $200,000, as well as $50,000 to cover funeral costs. As of today, a total of 52 cases have been processed, and disbursements are under way. In addition, the Government announced that the Support Fund will provide a living allowance of $50,000 to each affected household. As of today, 326 cases have been processed, and disbursements are ongoing.
As of 4pm today, the Government has registered around 1 930 households for an emergency subsidy of $10,000, with disbursements made to 1 921 households. For the remaining approximately 10 households, collection will be arranged at the Home Affairs Enquiry Centre in the district where they currently stay or at the Tai Po Home Affairs Enquiry Centre.
To ease the financial burden on residents of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po and the families of the deceased during this difficult time, the Government will waive the affected property owners' and residents' unsettled balance of tax payable for the year of assessment 2024/25 and the provisional tax payable for the year of assessment 2025/26. In other words, they will not need to settle the tax demand notes issued for the year of assessment 2024/25. The Government will also pay the Government rent on behalf of the affected property owners and residents and waive the rates for domestic tenements that became inhabitable due to the fire. Additionally, the Government will waive the water and sewage charges for residents of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po from July to November this year.
Social workers of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been in contact with more than 1 600 affected households so far to register for the "one social worker per household" follow-up service. SWD staff also paid a visit to the affected residents staying in transitional housing units in Tai Po today, and distributed Octopus cards with a face value of $2,000 to facilitate their daily travels and address their imminent needs. The SWD will maintain liaison with the affected households to provide all necessary assistance while fully supporting the relief work of the Government. Those not yet in touch with the SWD are advised to leave their contact information by calling 182 183 as soon as possible.
Accommodation support
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As of this morning, a total of 1 152 residents have been accommodated, through the co-ordination of the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, in youth hostels, camps, or hotel rooms. Another 1 765 residents have moved into transitional housing units provided by the Housing Bureau or units from the Hong Kong Housing Society. Moreover, the Tai Po District Office continues to operate a temporary shelter at Tai Po Community Centre, which remains open to residents in need. The other temporary shelter at Tung Cheong Street Community Hall will remain in operation until the existing users have relocated to arranged emergency accommodations.
Relief supplies and donations
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The supplies donation online platform (www.taipodonation.hk), established by the Government and the information technology sector, continues to operate, facilitating the registration of supplies donations from organisations and the public. Alongside earlier information provided by the public via WhatsApp, the Government has so far received over 1 100 registrations for various donation items, including food and beverages, clothing, daily necessities, bedding, and electrical appliances. The Government is consolidating and integrating all donation data and has initiated the matching process to address the medium- and long-term needs of residents, so that appropriate supplies can be distributed to relevant locations. After co-ordinating with the relevant policy bureau and donors, the first batch of supplies comprising bedding and electrical appliances has been arranged for transport to a venue in preparation for residents' moving in. The Government will continue to carry out the matching of supplies registered for donation.
Handling of reported missing persons
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The Police have completed searches at all seven buildings. Around 600 officers from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVIU) conducted searches at the two most affected buildings today and handled three sets of newly found human remains. The number of the deceased has been updated to 159. The Police will continue to follow up on the reported missing persons, aiming to confirm their status and the number of casualties as soon as possible.
Investigations
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The Police have so far arrested a total of 15 people from various construction companies on suspicion of manslaughter. The arrested persons have been released on bail and are requested to report back to the Police in mid-December. Additionally, the Police arrested six persons in charge and staff members of a registered fire service installation contractor for fraud yesterday. The Police have accorded top priority to the case and are gathering evidence through various channels for a thorough and in-depth investigation. The possibility of further arrests is not ruled out.
To determine the cause of the fire, fire officers continue to excavate debris on the first-floor platform of Wang Cheong House. They are also conducting a preliminary investigation into the fire damage situation and collecting samples for analysis at Wang Tai House and Wang Kin House. Additionally, they are assisting the DVIU with aerial inspections at the scene for investigation and evidence collection.
Fire officers have also started evidence gathering, such as retrieving exhibits from the fire pump room and confirming the power supply status of the fire alarm system during the incident.
Regulation and inspection work
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The Independent Checking Unit (ICU) of the Housing Bureau, together with the structural engineering experts and professionals from the Housing Department, will conduct the extraction of concrete cores samples from the relevant buildings in Wang Fuk Court next week at the soonest for the preparation of a detailed structural analysis. They will also carry out further support works in those units that may be subject to more damage with emergency maintenance contractors, the Police Force, and the Fire Services Department.
Separately, the ICU has deployed a dedicated team to Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan under the Tenants Purchase Scheme and Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) today to collect samples of the protective nets on site. The contractors also provided the test certificates for further follow-up actions.
The registered contractors of the four HOS courts, namely Sui Wo Court in Sha Tin, Ching Lai Court in Sham Shui Po, Yee Kok Court in Sham Shui Po, and On Kay Court in Kwun Tong, have been dismantling the protective nets in the respective HOS courts. The contractor of Fung Wah Estate in Chai Wan also started removing the protective nets. The ICU will go to the locations concerned again to monitor and follow up on the progress. On public housing estates, currently 15 housing estates are conducting maintenance works in relatively larger and localised areas with protective nets. The removal of all the protective nets will take place and is expected to be completed tomorrow.
In light of the latest Police investigation, the Development Bureau announced today that to protect public safety and put residents' and businesses' minds at ease, any scaffold nets installed on external walls of all public and private buildings, as well as government buildings undergoing major repair works, must be immediately removed, and works on those walls must cease. Departments responsible for inspections of relevant projects will promptly contact the relevant contractors, instructing them to complete the removal within the next three working days, i.e. on or before this Saturday (December 6). For individual cases where removal cannot be completed within that timeframe, the responsible party must notify the relevant department in advance, which will assess whether there are reasonable grounds for discretionary arrangements. The Buildings Department (BD) aims to issue a new code of practice next week, requiring all scaffold net materials to be sampled on site. The scaffold nets can only be installed after being certified by designated laboratories as compliant with relevant requirements.
Relevant departments inspected existing buildings undergoing major external wall maintenance earlier and took samples for testing from buildings with scaffold nets installed. As of today, the BD has taken samples from 398 private buildings with scaffold nets installed and sent them for testing in batches. The Architectural Services Department has also inspected all 18 of its public works building projects and collected samples for testing. Due to the large sample size (with thousands of samples being drawn), it will take considerable time to conduct the sampling and testing, and all parties will strive to complete this as soon as possible. Moreover, apart from the two buildings where plastic sheeting was found blocking the windows as announced earlier (which have been removed already in accordance with the Government's instructions), the BD did not find other buildings that used foam boards or plastic sheeting to block windows.
The Labour Department (LD) continues to inspect fire protection facilities and the fire emergency preparedness of building maintenance work sites with large-scale scaffolding to ensure the occupational safety of workers. As at 4pm today, the LD has inspected 175 construction sites, issued a total of 92 written warnings and 49 improvement notices, and has taken out 13 prosecutions.
Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po
