5 d. ago Singapore takes stock of lessons from Hong Kong’s Tai Po blaze

Singapore has begun reviewing early findings from the investigation into Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po high-rise blaze, with ministers signalling that lessons from the tragedy could feed into tighter rules on construction and maintenance works in the city state. Lawmakers said in parliament on Monday that observations made by Hong Kong authorities about the fire at Wang Fuk Court would be studied and, where relevant, incorporated into Singapore’s legislation and policy framework. The blaze, which...

Politics

7 d. ago Hong Kong housing estate flat owners drop contractor linked to deadly Tai Po blaze

Owners of a private housing estate in Tuen Mun have voted overwhelmingly to terminate their renovation contract with Prestige Construction and Engineering Company – the same contractor responsible for works at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, in the aftermath of the deadly blaze. At a general meeting held on Friday night at Elegance Gardens, 96.45 per cent of 1,655 effective undivided shares held by flat owners voted to terminate the contract. Several owners who spoke to the Post said they no longer...

Events

7 d. ago Hong Kong housing estate flat owners drop contractor linked to Tai Po blaze

Owners of a private housing estate in Tuen Mun have voted overwhelmingly to terminate their renovation contract with Prestige Construction and Engineering Company, the same contractor responsible for works at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, in the aftermath of the deadly blaze. At a general meeting held on Friday night at Elegance Gardens, 96.45 per cent of 1,655 effective undivided shares held by flat owners voted to terminate the contract. Several owners who spoke to the Post said they no longer...

Politics

1 week ago Hong Kong firms set to return to projects as new scaffolding nets expected soon

Hong Kong contractors will be able to start installing new scaffolding nets to resume renovation works as early as next week after the deadly Tai Po blaze triggered the citywide removal of mesh at around 420 buildings, an industry body has said. The Construction Industry Council planned to procure 50,000 scaffolding nets, costing HK$170 (US$21.80) each, with the first batch of 12,000 expected to be ready on January 15, executive director Albert Cheng Ting-ning said on Wednesday. Cheng said the...

Politics

1 week ago Swiss authorities admit fire safety checks missed for 5 years at burnt

Swiss local authorities admitted on Tuesday that fire safety inspections had not been carried out for the past five years at a bar where 40 people died and dozens were injured in a New Year’s blaze. “We are profoundly sorry. We did not have an indication that the checks had not been done,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud told reporters. “Although more than 1,400 fire inspections were carried out in the municipality in 2025 alone, the municipal council deeply regrets discovering that this...

Events

1 week ago Swiss bar in deadly blaze missed five years of safety checks

Swiss local authorities admitted on Tuesday that fire safety inspections had not been carried out for the past five years at a bar where 40 people died and dozens were injured in a New Year’s blaze. “We are profoundly sorry. We did not have an indication that the checks had not been done,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud told reporters. “Although more than 1,400 fire inspections were carried out in the municipality in 2025 alone, the municipal council deeply regrets discovering that this...

Events

2 w. ago North Korean missile falls near Japan; Takaichi orders safety checks

North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast on Sunday, South Korea’s military said. “The North has launched an unidentified ballistic missile towards the East Sea,” it said, referring to a body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. Japan’s defence ministry also said it detected a possible ballistic missile, which landed at 8.08am. The projectile is believed to have fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and no damage to ships or planes has been reported, according to a...

Events

2 w. ago North Korean missiles fall near Japan; South Korea, Japan on alert

North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, its first launch of the year just hours before South Korea’s leader heads to China for a summit. Sunday’s launch follows a US military operation against Pyongyang’s socialist ally Venezuela that snatched President Nicolas Maduro out of his country – for decades a nightmare scenario for North Korea’s leadership, which has long accused Washington of seeking to remove it from power. Seoul’s defence...

Events

2 w. ago Managers of Swiss bar face negligence probe after fatal New Year’s fire that killed 40

Swiss authorities have opened an investigation into the managers of the bar where a fire at a New Year’s party left 40 people dead, police said on Saturday. The two are suspected of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and causing fire by negligence, police said in a statement. They said that the investigation was opened on Friday night, but did not give further details. More than 100 people were injured in the blaze that broke out about 1.30am on Thursday at Le Constellation bar in the...

Events

2 w. ago Managers of Swiss bar face negligence probe after fatal New Year’s Eve fire that killed 40

Swiss authorities have opened an investigation into the managers of the bar where a fire at a New Year’s Eve party left 40 people dead, police said on Saturday. The two are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, the Valais region’s chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, told reporters. She said the investigation was opened on Friday night and that it would help “explore all the leads.” The announcement of the investigation did not name the...

Events

2 w. ago Owner of Swiss bar where New Year fire killed 40 insists safety norms were followed

The owner of the bar in a Swiss ski resort town ravaged by a deadly fire during New Year’s Eve celebrations insisted to Swiss media on Friday that safety norms had been followed. Jacques Moretti, a Frenchman who manages the Le Constellation bar with his wife Jessica, told the Tribune de Geneve daily that the establishment had faced “three inspections in 10 years”. “Everything was done according to the regulations,” he said. The question of whether safety standards were respected has raged ever...

Events

2 w. ago Champagne sparklers blamed for Swiss bar fire that killed 40

Investigators said on Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire at a Swiss ski resort when they came too close to the ceiling of a bar crowded with New Year’s Eve revellers. Authorities planned to look into whether the material on the ceiling that was designed to muffle sound conformed with regulations. The candles, which give off a stream of upwards-shooting sparks, were the same type that is commonly available for parties, officials said. Forty...

Events

2 w. ago Swiss ski resort bar inferno joins long list of world’s worst club fires

A fire at a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in the early hours of New Year’s Day has left dozens of people presumed dead and around 100 injured, according to authorities. Here is a look at some other nightclub, bar and music venue fires that have led to significant death tolls: December 2025: A fire ripped through a popular nightclub in Arpora village, in India’s Goa state, killing 25 people, including kitchen workers and tourists. March 2025: A fire and ensuing stampede at the...

Events

2 w. ago Several dead in explosion and fire at Swiss ski resort bar, police say

Several people were killed and others injured when an explosion ripped through a bar in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, Swiss police said early Thursday. “There has been an explosion of unknown origin,” Gaetan Lathion, a police spokesman in Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland said. “There are several injured, and several dead.” He said the explosion took place at around 1.30am in a bar called Le Constellation, which is popular with tourists, as revellers rang in the new...

Events

2 w. ago Dozens feared dead in explosion and fire at Swiss ski resort bar during New Year celebrations

Dozens of people are feared to have been killed and around 100 others injured after an explosion tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, Swiss police said on Thursday. Police had earlier said many people were being treated for burns. Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort, one of the top-ranked ski destinations in Europe. The “fire of undetermined origin” broke out in a bar...

Events

2 w. ago Dozens dead and 115 injured in fire at Swiss Alpine bar during New Year’s celebration

About 40 people were killed and another 115 injured, most of them seriously, after a fire ripped through a bar’s New Year celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort less than two hours after midnight on Thursday, police said. Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased. The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue, and overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of one of Switzerland’s worst...

Events

3 w. ago Hong Kong firefighter unions slam Ip Man producer Checkley Sin over blaze remarks

Six labour unions with Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department have denounced banker turned film producer Checkley Sin Kwok-lam for comments about its chief’s handling of the Tai Po fire. The unions banded together on Thursday to slam Sin’s comments about the department’s strategies for battling the city’s deadliest fire in decades. The blaze raged for about 43 hours, killing 161 people and displacing nearly 5,000 residents. Sin, a former banker who went on to produce the award-winning kung fu film...

Events

3 w. ago ‘Holding on to hope’: Hong Kong fire survivors make New Year wish for a home

Retired Hong Kong civil servant Ng Kook-yiu takes a shuttle bus every day from his transitional housing flat to the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. “I long to see my home, where I spent four decades of my life. It breaks my heart to see it each time, but it is still my home,” the 76-year-old said. Ng lived alone in the housing estate before the city’s deadliest blaze in decades engulfed seven of its eight buildings on November 26, killing at least 161 people. Like other residents who were...

Events

3 w. ago Hong Kong police make another arrest over deadly Tai Po blaze

Hong Kong police have made their 16th arrest in connection with last month’s deadly Tai Po blaze, detaining a man on suspicion of manslaughter. Police earlier arrested 15 people in connection with the fire, which engulfed seven of eight scaffolding-clad residential buildings in the Wang Fuk Court housing estate on November 26, killing 161 and displacing almost 5,000 residents. Police said on Wednesday that they arrested a man, 48, in Tin Shui Wai. He was the person in charge of the external wall...

Events

3 w. ago Committee probing Hong Kong fire visits Wang Fuk Court to inspect conditions

Members of an independent committee created to investigate Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades inspected the scene of the blaze on Tuesday morning to get a better understanding of the actual environment and conditions at Wang Fuk Court. Judge David Lok Kai-hong, the group’s chairman, was joined by fellow committee members such as Executive Council non-official member Chan Kin-por and outgoing MTR Corporation chairman Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen. Committee members were spotted wearing full protective...

Events