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Mike Rowse

Hong Kong simply has not developed the right mindset with respect to fire safety. Unless prompt, effective action is taken, we could be looking at more tragedies like the Wang Fuk Court disaster in Tai Po.
The numbers are stark and overwhelming, yet the context from which they have been derived is even more frightening. In January and February this year, the Fire Services Department inspected some 1,500 residential and mixed-use buildings planned at least 39 years ago. The exercise resulted in 2,500 fire hazard abatement notices being issued and 75 prosecutions with 1,200 summonses.
Some buildings had skipped routine annual maintenance checks. Specifically, 53 buildings had fire alarms with safety issues, and another 53 had defects in hosepipe and reel systems. No fewer than 18 had both.
These numbers would have been bad enough if they had arisen in the same months in 2025. Instead, they came just weeks after the Wang Fuk Court fire last November, which resulted in 168 deaths and around 5,000 residents being rendered homeless.
Despite having seen those appalling figures and watched the flames light up the night sky, the management organisations in over 80 buildings couldn’t even bring themselves to fix the fire alarms and fire hosepipes. What were they thinking?
How many more such cases are out there waiting to be found? The Wang Fuk Court case did not occur in a vacuum. In 2024, a fire in New Lucky House in Yau Ma Tei killed five people.


The government must also carry its share of responsibility. Several departments work on matters with a bearing on fire safety. Fire Services, of course, but also the Home Affairs Department responsible for engendering development of effective owners’ management organisations, the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit inspecting building safety, the Labour Department for dealing with complaints of workers smoking and so on. Have they all been aggressively pursuing their responsibilities? Could they do more?
The independent committee of inquiry into the Tai Po fire has been holding public hearings, and the testimony has not always been reassuring. It would not be right to pre-empt the committee’s final conclusions as more hearings will be held and a reasonable time will be required for measured consideration of all the evidence.
That said, one headline in this newspaper – “Building chiefs slammed for mechanical mindset” – and one in Singapore’s Straits Times – “Not our responsibility: Govt agencies deny accountability in HK’s deadly fire” – give a fair sense of the flavour as seen by media observers.
Part of the blame might lie with low morale in the workforce in both the public and private sectors. A recent survey of Hong Kong workplace well-being conducted on behalf of insurance company AIA reported an overall happiness score of only 65 out of 100. Nearly eight out of 10 respondents reported feeling “emotionally exhausted”, “overly tired” or “significantly demotivated at work” over the past month. “Heavy workload and long working hours” and “poor work-life balance” were generally cited as the leading causes of fatigue and depression.

We must look to heads of department in the government to take the lead in boosting the morale of civil servants they manage by giving them clear directions and full support. Ministers should also examine their own role in securing improved morale and performance in the departments for which they carry political responsibility.
Sometimes major bureaucratic surgery is required. A critical consultant report of Hong Kong’s investment promotion work in 2000 resulted in the disestablishment of the Industry Department and the creation of InvestHK, which I headed. Within three years, with many of the same personnel but adopting a proactive approach instead of a reactive one, it was rated the best investment promotion agency in Asia and continues to do good work today. In the private sector, senior management must assume the same set of duties.
Looking to the future, there is much to be done. The Fire Services Department will continue its inspection regime for two more years. Together with that department, the Security Bureau is conducting an overhaul of fire safety regulations. The consultation paper just issued says the proposed amendments seek to improve public safety by enhancing regulatory coherence, enforcement effectiveness and accountability.


We must also look to the Home Affairs Bureau to ensure that for every building, whether in single or multiple ownership, there is a suitable management organisation in place with proper guidelines and direct advice and assistance from the relevant departments. In due course, the committee of inquiry will have many useful recommendations, and these must be adopted and implemented with speed.
In addition, however, the general public must be made more aware of the issue and the avenues for making suggestions and raising complaints. One of the saddest parts of the evidence given to the committee shows that reports were made to the relevant departments in many instances but seemed to disappear into a bureaucratic black hole. All too often people were fobbed off with a reply that a different department was responsible.
This is an area where our local politicians have an important role to play. In addition to forwarding their own suggestions and complaints, they must ensure there is proper machinery in place to deal with those coming directly from the public, who are after all their constituents. Demanding accountability strengthens society and represents backing for national security, not its opposite.


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On fire safety, Hong Kong needs a mindset change

An aerial view of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po on May 26. Photo: Elson Li

Civil servants and others head out for lunch on the footbridge connecting to the government’s headquarters in Tamar, Admiralty, on May 28. Photo: Karma Lo

Hong Kong’s golden window to renew ageing housing estates is now

Children ride scooters on the grounds of the Kai Tak Light Public Housing development on February 23. Photo: Jelly Tse

A family who just moved into a light public housing flat in Kwun Tong, pictured on August 30, 2025. The arrival of light public housing and transitional housing has thrown a lifeline to families trapped in cramped, unsuitable conditions. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong housing: small shoebox flat wins not enough to fix big issues

A woman tends to her daughter in their subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po on September 16, 2025. Photo: Sam Tsang

The toilet area of a flat on Nga Tsin Long Road in Kowloon City, seen on May 19, which the government made minimal rectifications to so that it could serve as a sample for basic housing units. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Can the Northern Metropolis balance progress with quality of life?

A view of the newly commissioned Fanling Bypass (Eastern section), the first major transport infrastructure in the Northern Metropolis border town development project, is seen on May 3. Photo: Eugene Lee

People do morning exercises on the East Coast Boardwalk in North Point on January 22. Photo: Sam Tsang

A vegetable farm is seen at Yik Yuen Village in the Northern Metropolis on May 15. Photo: Edmond So

Pedestrians walk on a newly constructed walkway from Waterfall Bay Park to Cyberport Road in Pok Fu Lam on October 2, 2025. Photo: Nora Tam

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The hearings of the committee looking into the Tai Po fire and the Fire Services Department’s inspections show there is much room for improvement


The hearings of the committee looking into the Tai Po fire and the Fire Services Department’s inspections show there is much room for improvement.


Hong Kong fires and safety

Hong Kong society

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


On fire safety, Hong Kong needs a mindset change

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The hearings of the committee looking into the Tai Po fire and the Fire Services Department’s inspections show there is much room for improvement

The hearings of the committee looking into the Tai Po fire and the Fire Services Department’s inspections show there is much room for improvement