Hong Kong leader apologizes for deadly fire that tested Beijing’s grip on city

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s leader made a rare apology Thursday for a residential fire that killed 168 people last year, announcing that a top housing official would resign after an investigation blamed corruption and regulatory failures for the Chinese territory’s worst human-caused disaster in decades. The Nov. 26, 2025, fire at Wang Fuk Court, a high-rise housing estate in the suburban district of Tai Po, swiftly engulfed seven of its eight towers, killing 110 women and 58 men ranging in age from 6 months to 98 years old. Thousands of others were displaced from their homes at the complex, which was undergoing major renovations at the time of the blaze. The tragedy provoked widespread public grief and anger and was widely seen as the first major test for the Hong Kong government since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 in response to pro-democracy protests. Critics say the law, which Hong Kong and Chinese officials say was necessary to restore stability, has been used to stifle dissent in the former British colony. Calls for accountability and transparency after the fire were quickly met with warnings from Hong Kong and Chinese officials, who said that “external hostile forces” were trying to re-create the chaos of the 2019 protests, which sometimes turned violent. John Lee, Hong Kong’s top leader, said he was “deeply saddened” by the fire’s impact on the community. “After self-reflection, I have considered that the government should roll out a large number of measures for reform, and a lot of work has to be carried out,” he said at a news conference. “In my capacity as chief executive, I apologize to all the victims and members of the public,” said Lee, who bowed in apology with seven other senior Hong Kong officials. Lee said Housing Secretary Winnie Ho had resigned on Wednesday, making her the first official to lose her job over the fire. Ho “should bear political responsibility” for the disaster, he said, despite no evidence of personal wrongdoing. Lee also said the government would make changes to Hong Kong’s construction industry and regulatory system based on recommendations from a scathing report by a government-appointed independent committee that was also released Thursday. The fire was the result of “decades of failure by the bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction, fire safety engineering and building management industries, and the Government,” according to the 1,154-page report, which was submitted to the government last week and was partially redacted upon its public release. The long-awaited report found that the fire was most likely caused by a lit cigarette that ignited combustible materials nearby. During public hearings earlier this year, the committee heard testimony that construction workers had been smoking on site. Renovation contractors also used non-fire-retardant scaffolding nets and flammable foam boards to cover windows, which put the “lives of all residents in WF Court at serious risk, apparently with a view to maximizing their financial gains,” the report said. The report said that Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., the main contractor, and project consultant Will Power Architects Co. had “cut corners in numerous aspects.” “There is no doubt that they are the main culprits responsible for the occurrence of the inferno and the high fatalities in the tragic incident,” it said. Both companies, along with seven individuals, were criminally charged in June on 25 counts, including manslaughter, money laundering and tax evasion. The report also took a broader view of Hong Kong’s building maintenance and renovation sector, citing a “corrupt eco-system” long characterized by practices such as bid-rigging, which it recommended be criminalized. In addition, the report criticized the government over regulatory lapses and a “slack enforcement attitude” at the housing complex, where residents had repeatedly raised safety concerns. “The Committee finds that no Government department took effective ownership of various fire safety issues, and complaints about fire hazards fell into a vacuum,” the report said. Lee said Thursday that the Housing Bureau, Buildings Department, Fire Services Department and Labor Department all bore some responsibility for the blaze and that all four agencies would be the subject of a three-month investigation. John Burns, a professor emeritus of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said it was “very significant” that Lee had apologized. “We’ve gone for years with no chief executive talking about political accountability, as though it didn’t exist,” he told NBC News in an interview. “Today, we have the chief executive talking about this directly and talking about a system of political accountability,” Burns said. “That’s a positive step.” He added that it was “inevitable” that an official such as Ho would resign, “otherwise the credibility of the government itself would have been even more severely damaged.”