Hong Kong charges seven, two firms over deadly Wang Fuk Court fire

Hong Kong police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption charged seven people and two companies on Wednesday in the first criminal cases to emerge from the Wang Fuk Court fire, a blaze that killed 168 residents and engulfed seven of the estate’s eight high-rise blocks. The 25 counts include manslaughter, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, attempting to pervert the course of public justice and tax evasion, pushing the disaster from a public safety inquiry into an accountability case centered on alleged misconduct.

The accused were five men and two women, aged 33 to 60, who authorities said played different roles in Wang Fuk Court’s major renovation project. The companies charged were the project consultancy firm and the main contractor involved in the work. Police and the ICAC said the charges followed thorough investigations by a joint task force and legal advice from the Department of Justice, after the Nov. 26, 2025 fire in Tai Po, in Hong Kong’s New Territories.

The case has cast a harsh light on Hong Kong’s fire-safety and housing enforcement regime, where renovation controls and building oversight are meant to prevent exactly this kind of catastrophe. Public hearings have already heard that almost all life-saving fire safety measures failed because of human factors, including fire alarms that had been deactivated in seven of the eight blocks, cutting evacuation time when the fire broke out.

Investigators also focused on substandard construction safety netting and the possible use of combustible materials that helped the blaze race through the complex. The fire burned for more than 43 hours, displaced thousands of residents and became Hong Kong’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980. In March, police said 38 people had been arrested and nine charged in the case, while the ICAC said it had arrested 23 people on suspicion of bribery and conspiracy to defraud. The new charges widen the inquiry into whether the disaster was driven by criminal negligence, regulatory breakdown, or both.