Hong Kong vows judge-led independent committee into deadly blaze

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee vowed to form an independent committee to investigate the city’s deadliest fire in nearly eight decades, after widespread public calls for a transparent process.

“We have to expose the truth, do everyone justice and make sure the deceased can rest in peace,” said Mr Lee at his regular Tuesday press briefing, standing behind a black background and wearing a dark tie.

“We should turn our anger and sorrow into the power of reform,” he added.

Mr Lee stressed multiple times that changes were required in the wake of the blaze that has killed 151 people, with some 30 people still missing. One judge will lead the committee investigating the rapid spread of the fire, he said, without naming the person.

The Wang Fuk Court inferno

has stoked expressions of public anger not seen since major protests about six years ago, with online petitions garnering thousands of signatures calling for an independent inquiry. Officials have arrested three people on national security charges, according to local media reports.

Separately, the police and the anti-graft agency have arrested multiple people in connection with the blaze, which incinerated a high-rise estate in the city’s northern outskirts once home to 4,600 people. Those charges include suspicion of manslaughter and corruption.

Mr Lee also confirmed that legislative elections planned for Dec 7 would go ahead.

The government is grappling with the aftermath of the city’s deadliest fire since a warehouse blaze in 1948 that killed 176 people. 

Regulators had

issued repeated written warnings urging the contractor

to put proper fire-prevention measures in place at the eight-tower complex, including as recently as a week before the fire, the Labour Department said last week.

Investigators have discovered the fire was accelerated by workers using cheaper, substandard netting and evading government testing. BLOOMBERG