Residents were left helpless as departments ‘passed the ball’ on safety complaints

No government department took effective ownership of fire safety risks ahead of the deadly Tai Po fire, leaving complaints made by residents to fall into a vacuum, an independent committee found, singling out four departments as partly responsible for the disaster.
At the release of the 1,154-page full report on Thursday, Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki said he would lead a steering committee to review and implement the more than 100 recommendations of the independent…