The head of the Hong Kong Government apologized and the Minister of Housing resigned, after reporting that the authorities were responsible for the fire that killed 168 people in a residential complex last year.
© Philip FONG / AFP via Getty Images
29/10/2026
by
Lusa
O head of the Hong Kong Government today apologized and the Minister of Housing resigned, after a report released pointing responsibility to the authorities in the gigantic fire that killed 168 people in a residential complex last year.
On November 26, 2025, seven of the eight buildings in the same condominium burned down in Tai Po in northern Hong Kong, making the fire the deadliest in a housing complex in the world since 1980.
Since then, demands have emerged for the government of this small Chinese territory with a special status to report, and there have even been calls for the chief executive, John Lee, to resign.
Today, at a press conference on the occasion of the release of the investigation report, Lee leaned down and declared himself “deeply sad.”.
“I would like to apologize to affected residents and the population,” he said.
The city housing minister, Winnie Ho, resigned.
She has to “take political responsibility,” Lee commented.
The report concluded that four government bodies “must accept part of the responsibility for the high number of deaths”, in particular the Hong Kong Housing Department.
The fire resulted from “deliberately reprehensible failures and conduct of several individuals in the private sector”, it is highlighted in the text.
The document also denounces “decades of failures” by the government and bodies responsible for building, fire safety engineering and building management.
Since March, more than 30 hearings have been conducted by a committee of magistrates to determine the causes of the fire.
The hearings showed that almost all security measures aimed at saving lives in the event of fire failed that day “due to human error,” Attorney General Victor Dawes said before the commission, estimating that the catastrophe “was avoidable.”.
According to the report, the fire was probably caused by “a cigarette, which set fire to papers”, before the flames spread.
Over 4,600 people lived in the Wang Fuk Court residential complex, over 1,700 of whom were 65 years old or older. Of the 168 people who died in the fire, 114 belonged to this age group.
In June, authorities initiated legal proceedings, including charges of negligent homicide, against seven individuals and two fire-related companies and at least 35 people were arrested.
Today, the government stated that the regulators were “mistaken” by the contractors, that “they are the main culprits of the fire and the high number of victims in this tragic incident.”.
According to the report, several contractors “did not do any effective work, they were only hired to assign their names and validate regulatory forms in exchange for payment.”.
Prosecutors also accuse construction companies of using non-fire-resistant materials to reduce costs.
The Hong Kong Government has proposed “systemic reforms” to prevent similar accidents from being repeated, such as the creation of a specific crime for fraudulent handling of competitions — a practice that, according to John Lee, is “the cause of problems” relating to building maintenance plans.