 "A general view shows the aftermath of a major fire that swept through several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong's Tai Po district on November 28, 2025. (AFP)")
Hong Kong’s anti-graft watchdog announced on Friday that it has detained eight people linked to the renovation of the high-rise building that was consumed by a devastating fire, which killed 128 people.
According to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the group—seven men and one woman aged between 40 and 63—includes scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultancy and project managers responsible for overseeing the refurbishment work.
Officers also raided their workplaces the same day, seizing documents and bank records relevant to the case. The corruption probe into the renovation project was initiated on Thursday, shortly after the deadly blaze erupted.
Deadliest fire in 60 years
Around 80 residents have been injured, and authorities say 89 of the recovered bodies are yet to be identified.
As firefighters finally extinguished the last pockets of flame and the charred blocks continued to smoulder across the skyline, the focus shifted sharply to how the fire ignited and why it spread so aggressively. Many residents have called the catastrophe a “man-made disaster.”
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View AllOfficials say the speed and intensity of the blaze were fuelled by Styrofoam and other flammable materials placed outside windows during ongoing renovations. Fire alarms across all eight buildings were also found to be malfunctioning, confirming complaints from residents who said they never heard alerts when the fire broke out.
The fire started around 14:51 local time on Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court, a public housing estate in Tai Po made up of eight 31-storey towers built in 1983. Seven of the blocks were undergoing renovation. The complex houses nearly 4,600 people, many of them elderly; around 40 percent of residents are over 65.
This has been Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in more than six decades .
The inferno escalated quickly, overwhelming firefighters who struggled with extreme temperatures, collapsing scaffolding and densely packed interiors. More than 2,300 firefighters and almost 400 fire engines were deployed.
Emergency shelters have been set up for hundreds of evacuees, many of them elderly residents who fled with little more than the clothes they were wearing.