A senior Housing Bureau surveyor told an inquiry hearing on Wednesday on the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire that its officers did not regularly conduct inspection visits to sites where major-renovation work was being carried out – and that they mainly dealt with paperwork.

This came after a slate of safety violations – including unauthorised openings in staircases, windows sealed with foam boards and usage of non-fire-retardant bamboo scaffolding netting – has since emerged as key factors in the rapid spread of the inferno that killed 168 people at the Tai Po residential estate last November.

Senior maintenance surveyor Ku Siu-ping, from the bureau's independent checking unit, confirmed that these violations fell under the purview of his unit's supervisory responsibilities.

However, he said the supervision system did not require regular or proactive inspections.

Officers mainly carried out reviews of paperwork and mostly conducted site visits only when they had received a complaint, Ku added.

Under the system, he said, they rely on engineering consultants to supervise contractors.

Ku agreed there was no mechanism to check the reliability, honesty or quality of these consultants.

The inquiry earlier heard that a registered inspector working for the project consultant died in July 2022.

Ku told the inquiry he did not know the inspector had died until 2024, when he handled a complaint and tried to contact him.

Ku said he then requested that the project consultant appoint another registered inspector.


Edited by Tony Sabine