# Hong Kong's Catastrophic Fire Provokes Questions and Fury

An episode of [Big Take](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1578096201), 2 Dec 2025, 20 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/825d4e29-b616-46f4-afd7-ae2b0013005c/316e667f-5776-423d-a610-b3a7014a690c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=8b1dd624-a026-43e9-8b57-ae2b00130066

Hong Kong’s worst fire disaster in decades has stirred up public anger over negligence, safety standards and official accountability. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha talks to Bloomberg’s Shawna Kwan and Jenni Marsh about the devastation, the political fallout and how the public outcry is causing unease in Beijing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
[0:12] Speaker 2: Hutong four Home, Oh LOI, this is painful for me.
[0:16] Speaker 2: I feel helpless. How could such a massive fire happened?
[0:20] Speaker 2: And this could have been prevented.
[0:23] Speaker 3: For the past few years, Andrew Lung has lived with
[0:26] Speaker 3: his elderly mother at wang Fu Court, the sight of
[0:30] Speaker 3: last week's devastating fire here in Hong Kong. Hong Kong
[0:35] Speaker 3: is waking up to some tragic news this morning.
[0:39] Speaker 1: Hong Kong firefighters close to completing their search of seven
[0:43] Speaker 1: burnt down apartment towers.
[0:45] Speaker 3: More than one hundred and fifty people were killed and
[0:48] Speaker 3: many others, including Andrew and his mother, were displaced after
[0:52] Speaker 3: the blaze ripped through the housing complex, damaging seven of
[0:55] Speaker 3: its eight towers. Over the week, and thousands of mourners
[1:01] Speaker 3: from across the city gathered at the site to honor
[1:04] Speaker 3: the victims. At one point, the line stretched for more
[1:07] Speaker 3: than a mile. They left handwritten notes and bouquets of
[1:11] Speaker 3: white and yellow chrysanthemums, a flower traditionally used at funerals
[1:15] Speaker 3: here across the city. The sense of shock, anger and
[1:21] Speaker 3: sadness is palpable. When I visited wang Fu Court with
[1:25] Speaker 3: our producer. Last week, the elevated walkways and sidewalks were
[1:29] Speaker 3: lined with people. They just stood in silent disbelief, staring
[1:33] Speaker 3: at the burnt shell of the housing complex nearby. Thousands
[1:37] Speaker 3: of volunteers dispersed supplies to victims, a mass mobilization not
[1:41] Speaker 3: seen in years. We met Andrew and others like him,
[1:45] Speaker 3: residents struggling to make sense of the devastation before them.
[1:51] Speaker 3: My cat died in the fire, and I cry for
[1:54] Speaker 3: two days. I saw my own health burned down. But
[1:57] Speaker 3: what can I do? The Hong Kong government has opened
[2:00] Speaker 3: an investigation into what caused the fire, but many questions
[2:04] Speaker 3: are still to be answered, why the building's fire alarms failed,
[2:09] Speaker 3: and whether the contractor renovating the complex followed proper safety protocols.
[2:14] Speaker 1: I think the public really wants to know whether the
[2:17] Speaker 1: contractor is at fault and whether the authorities have any
[2:21] Speaker 1: chance to have stopped it but it didn't.
[2:23] Speaker 3: Shana Kwan is a Bloomberg real estate reporter based in
[2:27] Speaker 3: Hong Kong.
[2:27] Speaker 1: All these are the answers the public are urgently seeking.
[2:32] Speaker 3: This kind of outpouring of grief and mounting anger hasn't
[2:36] Speaker 3: been seen in the city since twenty twenty, when Beijing
[2:38] Speaker 3: imposed its National Security Law here, authorities in Hong Kong
[2:42] Speaker 3: have moved quickly to forestall any potential unrest. China's National
[2:47] Speaker 3: Security Office in the territory issued a stark warning saying
[2:51] Speaker 3: it will take action against anyone attempting to stir up
[2:54] Speaker 3: unrest or threaten national security. Over the weekend, at least
[2:58] Speaker 3: three people were arrested for sedition and inciting hatred toward
[3:02] Speaker 3: the government.
[3:03] Speaker 4: They're coming down hot and quick because they do not
[3:06] Speaker 4: want this desiable.
[3:07] Speaker 3: That's Bloomberg's Jenny Marsh, who oversees our coverage of Greater
[3:11] Speaker 3: China's economy and politics. I spoke with Shauna and Jenny
[3:14] Speaker 3: to understand how this tragedy unfolded, how the fire became
[3:18] Speaker 3: entangled with the National Security Law, and how the government
[3:22] Speaker 3: is using that law to keep order.
[3:24] Speaker 4: They're concerned that public grief and mourning will get out
[3:31] Speaker 4: of their control, and they do not want protests. They
[3:34] Speaker 4: don't want Hong Kong to look disorderly.
[3:41] Speaker 3: This is the big take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
[3:44] Speaker 3: Wanha today on the show Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades.
[3:50] Speaker 3: The fury is ignited in the financial hub, how that's
[3:53] Speaker 3: causing unease in Beijing, and what this could mean for
[3:57] Speaker 3: Hong Kong's future. The death toll continues to rise in
[4:07] Speaker 3: Hong Kong's worst fire in nearly eighty years. Victims are
[4:12] Speaker 3: still being identified in the ruins of the high rise complex,
[4:15] Speaker 3: with dozens still missing and thousands displaced. Like many of
[4:20] Speaker 3: us across the city. Bloomberg real estate reporter Shauna Kwan
[4:23] Speaker 3: watched in horror as the flames tore through the massive
[4:27] Speaker 3: housing complex in the northern district of Taypo last week.
[4:31] Speaker 1: So on Wednesday, November twenty sixth a fire began at
[4:35] Speaker 1: around three pm at one of the buildings at the
[4:37] Speaker 1: Wongfo Court complex, and he spread quickly to the other
[4:44] Speaker 1: six towers in the densely built high rise complex within
[4:47] Speaker 1: just a couple of hours, so a total of seven
[4:51] Speaker 1: out of the eight tower complex were affected. There was
[4:56] Speaker 1: a massive rescue effort close to four hundred fire engines
[4:59] Speaker 1: to thousand and three hundred fire fighters and paramedics, but
[5:02] Speaker 1: the fire was not contained until about forty hours later
[5:05] Speaker 1: on Friday morning.
[5:07] Speaker 3: Now, Shana, for people who aren't here in Hong Kong,
[5:10] Speaker 3: I wonder if you can give us a bit of
[5:11] Speaker 3: background about One Foot Court. Where is it in Hong Kong?
[5:15] Speaker 3: What kind of housing is it? Who lived there?
[5:17] Speaker 1: It was built in the nineteen eighties as government subsidized housing,
[5:21] Speaker 1: so to the growing lower middle class bias at discounted prices.
[5:25] Speaker 1: It consists of eight blocks with almost two thousand apartments.
[5:29] Speaker 1: I suppose you know in international standard that's quite compact
[5:32] Speaker 1: and dense, but it's very typically in Hong Kong. Because
[5:35] Speaker 1: home prices are so expensive in Hong Kong, it's normal
[5:38] Speaker 1: for families to live together and for buildings to be
[5:41] Speaker 1: built very close with each other.
[5:45] Speaker 3: Hong Kong's limited land and high density make it difficult
[5:49] Speaker 3: to demolish and rebuild aging buildings. Individual owners are often
[5:54] Speaker 3: responsible for maintenance. By law, private buildings over three stories
[5:58] Speaker 3: and more than thirty years old must undergo mandatory inspections
[6:02] Speaker 3: and renovations. Around twenty nine thousand buildings that's roughly sixty
[6:07] Speaker 3: percent of the city's total, have reached that threshold, and
[6:11] Speaker 3: thousands more will join over the next decade. When the
[6:14] Speaker 3: fire broke out last week, Wang Foot Court was about
[6:17] Speaker 3: a year into a forty one million dollar renovation. Project
[6:21] Speaker 3: to repair damage to its exterior walls. Seana. This kind
[6:25] Speaker 3: of renovation is pretty common here in Hong Kong. It's
[6:27] Speaker 3: part of the everyday scenery here for us, but for
[6:30] Speaker 3: people who aren't familiar. Can you describe what construction on
[6:34] Speaker 3: high rises look like here in Hong Kong?
[6:37] Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be quite a strange visual for our
[6:40] Speaker 1: international readers. So when you walk around Hong Kong, you
[6:43] Speaker 1: may see high rises as high as forty thirty or
[6:47] Speaker 1: even higher. Floors have bambuska folding wrapped around it and
[6:51] Speaker 1: on top of it usually greenland netting as well. So
[6:55] Speaker 1: when those renovation projects are ongoing, so residents inside sometimes
[7:00] Speaker 1: they cannot even open their windows, and sometimes you cannot
[7:03] Speaker 1: really see what's going on outside from the apartment. So
[7:07] Speaker 1: that might have contributed to the tragedy as well, because
[7:11] Speaker 1: the victims might not have known what's happening outside.
[7:15] Speaker 3: They might not have seen a fire and flames right
[7:18] Speaker 3: outside their windows.
[7:19] Speaker 1: Right.
[7:20] Speaker 3: There were warnings about problems with the Wang Fuk Court
[7:23] Speaker 3: renovation from the outset. Initial findings revealed that the protective
[7:28] Speaker 3: nets and foam panels used during the renovation may have
[7:31] Speaker 3: failed to meet fire safety standards. And that may have
[7:35] Speaker 3: been a factor in how quickly the blaze spread. Residents
[7:39] Speaker 3: of the towers told Bloomberg they raised concerns about the
[7:42] Speaker 3: plan to put styrofoam boards over the windows more than
[7:45] Speaker 3: a year ago. According to several attendees, A representative for
[7:49] Speaker 3: the consultancy overseeing the renovations brushed off their concerns, saying
[7:54] Speaker 3: that styrofoam wasn't illegal. Here's Bloomberg's Jenny Marsh.
[7:58] Speaker 4: They knew that the construction materials that have been put
[8:02] Speaker 4: up around their building. They knew that these materials were
[8:05] Speaker 4: no good. They had tested them themselves. They knew that
[8:08] Speaker 4: they were flammable, and they tried every single term to
[8:11] Speaker 4: raise the alarm in every single way they knew possible.
[8:14] Speaker 4: These residents didn't just complain to the construction company. They
[8:17] Speaker 4: went into the labor department, They went to the housing department,
[8:21] Speaker 4: They went on television. The labor department visited sixteen times.
[8:25] Speaker 4: Did they not see there was diyrophone boards in people's
[8:28] Speaker 4: windows and no one did anything to protect them? And
[8:31] Speaker 4: I think that is what has made people here so angry.
[8:35] Speaker 3: Bloomberg's reporting showed a series of missed opportunities to prevent
[8:40] Speaker 3: the tragedy from homeowner concerns that weren't addressed to an
[8:43] Speaker 3: appeal to the Anti corruption agency to investigate the contractor.
[8:48] Speaker 3: Then there's Hong Kong's use of traditional bamboo scaffolding, which
[8:52] Speaker 3: has become a flashpoint.
[8:54] Speaker 1: Bamboo scaffolding has been such an integral part of Hong
[8:58] Speaker 1: Kong's landscape as well as architectural culture. It has been
[9:02] Speaker 1: here for over one hundred years. So using bamboo, which
[9:05] Speaker 1: is lighter as well cheaper and more agile as opposed
[9:09] Speaker 1: to metal, which is fixed.
[9:13] Speaker 3: Hong Kong is one of the few places in the
[9:15] Speaker 3: world that routinely uses bamboo scaffolding in construction. China abandon
[9:21] Speaker 3: its use for residential and municipal construction a few years ago.
[9:25] Speaker 1: So when I talked to experts, they say that obviously
[9:29] Speaker 1: bamboo can be burned, but it's not easy to burn,
[9:32] Speaker 1: and obviously metal.
[9:34] Speaker 3: Is more durable than bamboo is.
[9:35] Speaker 1: But as more investigation went on and in the later
[9:39] Speaker 1: press breathings, government officials said that it was probably the
[9:43] Speaker 1: nattank that first caught fire, and the rapid spread of
[9:46] Speaker 1: fire was mainly because of the phoam panels.
[9:50] Speaker 3: In the aftermath of the fire, the government announced that
[9:53] Speaker 3: it would accelerate phasing out bamboo scaffolding and replacing it
[9:57] Speaker 3: with metal alternatives for safety. That's a big shift from
[10:01] Speaker 3: an earlier plan which aimed to replace bamboo in about
[10:04] Speaker 3: half of public construction projects, and with the public calling
[10:08] Speaker 3: for investigations and accountability, the government has taken swift action.
[10:13] Speaker 1: So very quickly. The government carried out an investigation and
[10:17] Speaker 1: overnight they arrested three people from the contractor company for manslaughter,
[10:21] Speaker 1: and the Anti coruption Watchtock had also arrested a people
[10:25] Speaker 1: connected to the project. The three people arrested by the
[10:30] Speaker 1: police were two directors of the company and one engineer
[10:34] Speaker 1: for the contractor, and the a people arrested by ICAAC
[10:38] Speaker 1: the anti corruption Washtock in Hong Kong are relatively unknown.
[10:43] Speaker 1: There were concerns from the residents about the projects ultimately
[10:47] Speaker 1: being awarded to the most expensive bidder. For the one
[10:52] Speaker 1: foot court, the price tech for that project was three
[10:55] Speaker 1: hundred and thirty million Hong Kong dollars, so you can
[10:58] Speaker 1: tell how lucrative this industry is.
[11:02] Speaker 3: Since those early arrests, authorities said they've apprehended more individuals
[11:08] Speaker 3: after the break. The tragic fire has triggered memories of
[11:12] Speaker 3: the divisive protests that rocked the city in twenty nineteen,
[11:16] Speaker 3: how the National Security Law is being used a stamp
[11:19] Speaker 3: out mounting anger, and what this moment reveals about Beijing's
[11:23] Speaker 3: tightening grip on the city. One of the most pressing
[11:41] Speaker 3: demands from the public is for the government to launch
[11:44] Speaker 3: an independent inquiry. On Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee announced
[11:49] Speaker 3: plans for an independent committee to investigate, but it's not
[11:53] Speaker 3: certain it will appease the public calls for thorough investigation.
[11:57] Speaker 3: The committee relies on voluntary parties the patient and testimony
[12:01] Speaker 3: isn't given under oath amid the cause for transparency. Another
[12:06] Speaker 3: issue that's come into the spotlight are the other arrests
[12:10] Speaker 3: authorities have made that are not connected to the construction project.
[12:14] Speaker 3: Bloomberg's Jenny Marsh says some of the anger and public
[12:18] Speaker 3: calls for accountability have caught the attention of authorities.
[12:22] Speaker 4: So the anger that we talked about decided to find
[12:24] Speaker 4: sort of organized expression over the weekend. On Friday, there
[12:28] Speaker 4: was an Instagram account that popped up a Typo residents
[12:32] Speaker 4: sort of concern group, and it made four demands from
[12:35] Speaker 4: the government and one of them was an independent inquiry
[12:38] Speaker 4: that was quickly taken down. We don't know under what circumstances,
[12:42] Speaker 4: but there was a student called males Quock who there
[12:44] Speaker 4: sort of handing out leaflets with these four demands on
[12:47] Speaker 4: and he has been arrested for sedition. Another arrest was
[12:51] Speaker 4: a former district councilor, Kenneth Chung, and he again he
[12:55] Speaker 4: was posting a lot on social media. He said, these
[12:58] Speaker 4: volunteers and typeoe around the sports center had formed a
[13:02] Speaker 4: human chain passing sort of alone materials to give to
[13:05] Speaker 4: the survivors of the blaze. And to him that the
[13:09] Speaker 4: feeling of sort of people coming together en mass on
[13:12] Speaker 4: the streets for a cause, and a cause which you
[13:15] Speaker 4: know is holding the government to account. He was saying,
[13:18] Speaker 4: this reminds you of twenty nineteen.
[13:21] Speaker 3: In twenty nineteen, anti government protests rocked Hong Kong. Millions
[13:28] Speaker 3: of demonstrators turned out to protests, with many camping out
[13:32] Speaker 3: on the street for months. Volunteers formed long human chains
[13:36] Speaker 3: across the city, handing out supplies to protesters, from water
[13:40] Speaker 3: and food to hard hats and gas masks. Jenny says,
[13:44] Speaker 3: for the government just evoking memories of those protests could
[13:48] Speaker 3: threaten the city's stability.
[13:51] Speaker 4: So the government, on the one hand, is suspicious if
[13:53] Speaker 4: this feeling like the protest movement, But the people out
[13:56] Speaker 4: on the streets themselves are recognizing that hasn't been anything
[13:59] Speaker 4: like this since twenty nineteen, when people back then were
[14:03] Speaker 4: very angry against the government, came out en mass, made
[14:07] Speaker 4: five demands and one of them was, you know, a
[14:09] Speaker 4: government inquiry. So different circumstances completely, but the parallels are emerging,
[14:15] Speaker 4: and I think it's a test of the government how
[14:17] Speaker 4: they handle this kind of morning in this sort of
[14:20] Speaker 4: new national security environment.
[14:22] Speaker 3: I was out in Taipo this weekend and what really
[14:25] Speaker 3: struck me was the anger and frustration that I felt
[14:28] Speaker 3: from people that we spoke to. It feels very different
[14:31] Speaker 3: from the way Hong Kong felt just even a week ago.
[14:34] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the tragedy has really sort of pissed
[14:38] Speaker 4: the calm that had come over Hong Kong since Beijing
[14:41] Speaker 4: imposed National Security Law in twenty twenty. You know, this
[14:45] Speaker 4: is a complex of high rise blocks that people saw
[14:48] Speaker 4: go up in flames, and most people in Hong Kong
[14:50] Speaker 4: live in a tower that looks a lot like this.
[14:53] Speaker 4: And I think everyone realized it could be them.
[14:57] Speaker 3: The fact that the government is moving to rest people
[14:59] Speaker 3: under nash Security law because they're asking for accountability. What
[15:04] Speaker 3: is it that is threatening to the government. What is
[15:06] Speaker 3: it that they're really concerned about.
[15:08] Speaker 4: They're concerned that public grief and mourning will get out
[15:14] Speaker 4: of their control. They have people coming together on the
[15:18] Speaker 4: streets with a lot of emotion and anger, and they
[15:22] Speaker 4: do not want protests. They don't want Hong Kong to
[15:24] Speaker 4: look disorderly. John Lee is a former police officer. He
[15:28] Speaker 4: was hired to get this city under control and that's
[15:31] Speaker 4: what he's done. Like since he's been in power, there
[15:33] Speaker 4: has not been any protest. I think there was one
[15:36] Speaker 4: small protest over a housing issue in northern Hong Kong
[15:40] Speaker 4: a year or so ago, and all those involved had
[15:43] Speaker 4: to apply to be in the protest that they had
[15:45] Speaker 4: numbers like they were in a marathon that were given
[15:47] Speaker 4: out from the police. It's been that controlled. It's more
[15:50] Speaker 4: controlled here than in mainland China. John Ley doesn't want chooting, ping,
[15:54] Speaker 4: looking down and thinking that he's led it all slip
[15:56] Speaker 4: away from him and it's got out of his control. Again,
[15:59] Speaker 4: that's not the message they want to send.
[16:03] Speaker 3: Chief Executive John Lee this week said that all of
[16:06] Speaker 3: Hong Kong is uniting to help those affected by the fire.
[16:10] Speaker 3: He also warned those who dare to sabotage this commitment
[16:15] Speaker 3: to society, saying that authorities will take action to ensure justice.
[16:20] Speaker 4: They're coming down hot and quick because they do know
[16:22] Speaker 4: what this deniable.
[16:23] Speaker 3: China is just right next door and watching all of this.
[16:27] Speaker 2: I mean.
[16:27] Speaker 3: Hours after the fire broke out, Chinese presence Xi Jinping
[16:30] Speaker 3: expressed sympathy to the families of the victims. He urged
[16:34] Speaker 3: efforts to extinguish the fire, and Beijing also dispatched a
[16:39] Speaker 3: Central Task Force to Hong Kong for emergency response. It
[16:43] Speaker 3: seems that Beijing has been more hands on with this
[16:45] Speaker 3: disaster in Hong Kong. How has that been received by
[16:48] Speaker 3: locals and why is that significant?
[16:51] Speaker 4: It was surprising the speed at which Chi Jinpin came
[16:53] Speaker 4: out on the mainland. He often isn't very swift to
[16:57] Speaker 4: respond to tragedies in that way, so it stood out.
[16:59] Speaker 4: I think they told Hong Kong that the government in
[17:02] Speaker 4: China is watching, that they have their support in terms
[17:05] Speaker 4: of if you need backup resources, they have it. But
[17:08] Speaker 4: I think It also is a very clear message to
[17:09] Speaker 4: the political leaders in Hong Kong that this was important
[17:13] Speaker 4: to the central authority, that was important to handle this correctly.
[17:16] Speaker 4: They really want Hong Kong leaders to sort of make
[17:19] Speaker 4: this a successful financial hub, to manage the city's image properly,
[17:23] Speaker 4: to make it attractive. And the sad thing about this
[17:26] Speaker 4: too is from a global perspective, Hong Kong is back
[17:29] Speaker 4: in the news for all the wrong reasons. Again.
[17:33] Speaker 3: Here in Hong Kong, we're now living under this new
[17:36] Speaker 3: national security environment and China's tighter grip on the city.
[17:40] Speaker 3: What is a government's response to the tragedy tell us
[17:44] Speaker 3: about where we are right now?
[17:46] Speaker 4: It sort of leaves Hong Kong in my mind in
[17:49] Speaker 4: this halfway house, you know, where like John Lee is
[17:52] Speaker 4: trying to be open, he's briefing, he's out there meeting people.
[17:56] Speaker 4: It's all a contrast with how this would be on
[17:58] Speaker 4: the mainland when tragedies like this happen. There was a
[18:01] Speaker 4: car ramming last year where about forty people died in
[18:04] Speaker 4: the mainland. That kind of thing is censored very quickly.
[18:06] Speaker 4: People laid out flowers that were swept away almost immediately.
[18:10] Speaker 4: There's no outlet. There's no where people can sort of
[18:13] Speaker 4: vent that public grief because it's too dangerous in the
[18:16] Speaker 4: eyes of the Communist Party to let people come together
[18:19] Speaker 4: like that and start to ask questions about why did
[18:22] Speaker 4: this happen. Hong Kong isn't at that point. We don't
[18:25] Speaker 4: have that kind of censorship apparatus. We're a long way
[18:28] Speaker 4: from it. But that's going to be one of the
[18:30] Speaker 4: interesting things. Does Johnally open an independent inquiry? I think
[18:35] Speaker 4: if he does, there'll be a lot of applause and
[18:37] Speaker 4: it will show that the government is willing to be
[18:40] Speaker 4: open about this. But I think he has the way
[18:43] Speaker 4: the risk. You know, if there's a public inquiry and
[18:46] Speaker 4: it finds the government was guilty, then what's the risk
[18:49] Speaker 4: in that? I think we have to wait and see
[18:52] Speaker 4: how China thinks. Johnny handles this, and it will depend
[18:56] Speaker 4: what happens in the coming sort of days and weeks.
[18:59] Speaker 4: He needs to have in a way where he doesn't
[19:01] Speaker 4: come down too hard and then create even more anger
[19:04] Speaker 4: than sort of boomerangs back of the government.
[19:14] Speaker 3: This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
[19:16] Speaker 3: wanh to get more from the Big Take and unlimited
[19:20] Speaker 3: access to all of Bloomberg dot Com. Subscribe today at
[19:23] Speaker 3: Bloomberg dot com slash podcast offer. If you liked the episode,
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