Following the Tai Po Wang Fuk Court fire in Hong Kong, the government arranged for more than 2,000 affected households to be temporarily accommodated in hotels and transitional housing. Some survivors were rehoused across districts, while others reported difficulties over the provision of basic supplies. After the incident, the government also set up an independent review panel. Unlike a statutory commission of inquiry, however, this body has no legal powers, prompting public concern that the incident cannot be thoroughly investigated.

Many media outlets have drawn comparisons between the Hong Kong fire and the Grenfell Tower fire in London eight years ago. That disaster was the result of a series of systemic failures spanning decades across government, the fire services and the construction industry, during which repeated warning signs were ignored. It took seven years for the public inquiry report to be completed, and its findings indicated that several companies involved in the building’s external cladding and structural materials were suspected of deliberate misconduct and fraud.

As time passes, two survivors tell Green Bean Media that they have still not seen justice done. They expressed dissatisfaction with the conclusions of the inquiry, criticised the government’s post-incident resettlement arrangements and compensation mechanisms, and said that “you can’t really put a price tag on people’s lives and that’s what they’ve done”, that they have “lost faith in the government”, and “the tragedy will be forgotten”.