A photo from Keung Mak's social worker showed the devastation of his apartment, with the ceiling burned so badly that steel rebar was visible, the floor littered with broken tiles, and parts needing reinforcement to prevent collapse. He and his wife had lived in the apartment for over 40 years, raising their children there. Due to the condition of their apartment, only two people are allowed in, so Keung Mak and his son went back.
The November 2025 fire in Tai Po was Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades, killing 168 people and spreading rapidly across seven of eight buildings in the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex. Thousands of displaced fire victims are returning to see what remains of their homes and retrieve belongings, a process expected to continue into early May. Many displaced residents are living scattered across Hong Kong, often in temporary housing, as they wait to find out where they can resettle. Older residents made up over a third of the approximately 4,600 people who lived in Wang Fuk Court before the fire.
My heart is heavy, I’m very disappointed. I didn’t expect the first floor would be burned like this.
An independent committee investigating the cause of the fire held its first hearing on Thursday. The committee's lead lawyer Victor Dawes said in opening remarks that the fire is suspected to have started at a platform in a light well outside two low-level units, with cigarette butts found there and on scaffolding. He said evidence showed multiple factors contributed to the disaster, including fire alarms and hose systems being shut off, use of non-fire-retardant scaffolding netting, and covering windows with foam boards. A number of people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, fraud, or corruption related to the fire. The judge-led committee, set up in December 2025, will also examine if systemic problems like bid-rigging existed in large-scale building maintenance and renovation works.
Hong Kong officials last month proposed to buy back the homeownership rights from fire victims, citing survey results of residents' preferences.
On the day of the fire, nearly all fire safety systems meant to protect lives failed because of human factors.