In the quiet that followed Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades, many residents struggled to sleep. At Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, 160 lives have now been confirmed lost, including one firefighter who died in the line of duty. Hundreds more were displaced, injured, or left with nothing but smoke-stained belongings. What began as a repair project became a tragedy that will remain etched in the city’s memory.

Last week, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the formation of an independent, judge-led commission of inquiry to examine how the fire began, how it spread so quickly, and what systemic issues may have contributed to the disaster. The decision signals the special administrative region government’s determination to address the incident seriously, and to pursue a fact-based, structured review rather than rush to premature conclusions. Historically, such independent inquiries have played an important role in helping Hong Kong turn painful lessons into lasting improvements.

Even before that work begins, however, one reality is already evident. This tragedy was not simply the result of one faulty site or one isolated mistake. It exposed deeper structural pressures now facing a hyperdense, rapidly aging city.

Across Hong Kong, especially on Hong Kong Island, where I live, scaffolding has become part of daily urban life. In the space of a short walk, it is now common to pass multiple residential blocks wrapped in bamboo poles, netting, and plastic sheeting. Many of these buildings are over 40 years old. Their repairs are no longer optional upgrades. They are structural necessities.

Hong Kong has entered an era of mass renovation. Entire districts are effectively living within moving construction zones. Yet the repair industry itself remains highly fragmented, dependent on manual labor, layered subcontracting, and tight cost controls. When everything operates smoothly, this system remains largely invisible. When multiple points fail at once, the consequences can escalate with devastating speed.

Public discussion after the fire has naturally focused on regulation. Questions have been raised about whether bamboo scaffolding remains appropriate, whether flammable sheeting should be more tightly restricted, and whether penalties for safety breaches should be increased. These debates are valid and necessary. At the same time, the city must also recognize a practical constraint. The scale of renovation across Hong Kong is now so vast that enforcement resources will always be under pressure. Regulation alone, without complementary preventive design and technological support, cannot carry the full burden of safety.

This leads to a second, more difficult question that deserves greater attention. When prevention fails, as it eventually will in any large city, how effectively can lives still be protected?

What Hong Kong now owes the 160 lives lost is not only remembrance, but renewed commitment to thoughtful improvement. Prevention, enforcement and rescue must evolve together. Only then can a city defined by vertical growth give its residents the deeper assurance that safety is rising alongside it

Here, the fire has highlighted another quiet challenge. Despite living in 2025, in an age reshaped by artificial intelligence, robotics, and remote sensing, much of modern firefighting in high-rise exterior blazes still resembles the methods of 20 years ago. This is not a criticism of front-line firefighters, whose professionalism and courage remain beyond doubt. Rather, it points to a broader question of whether the support systems and technologies surrounding them have evolved quickly enough to match new urban risks.

Exterior high-rise fires behave very differently from traditional indoor blazes. Wind effects, vertical heat spread, and combustible facade materials can transform a local flame into a citywide emergency within minutes. Around the world, dense cities are experimenting with tools such as heat-mapping drones, robotic suppression units, and next-generation extinguishing powders designed specifically for exterior surfaces. These technologies remain in the early stages globally, but their rapid development suggests that the next frontier of urban fire safety will be technological as much as regulatory.

Hong Kong’s defining feature has always been density. A single street can house tens of thousands of residents stacked into the sky. That same density once symbolized efficiency and opportunity. Today, it also amplifies risk. When something goes wrong, it does not remain contained. It expands vertically, laterally and socially with extraordinary force.

In his remarks, the chief executive noted that the tragedy reflected serious lapses across multiple stages of construction and supervision. That acknowledgment is significant. It reinforces the need for a systemic response rather than a narrow search for individual fault. The purpose of the independent review committee will therefore not only be to establish what happened, but to recommend how such breakdowns can be prevented from recurring at the structural level.

Yet commissions, or committees, however rigorous, are only one part of the response. What ultimately matters is how insights are translated into sustained practice. If Hong Kong is to reduce the likelihood and severity of future disasters, three realities deserve sustained attention.

First, urban aging is no longer a transitional issue. It is a permanent condition. Large-scale renovation will define the next decades of Hong Kong’s urban life. This demands more than traditional site supervision. It points toward the need for wider use of digital monitoring, material traceability, third-party verification, and transparent project data.

Second, accidents will still occur despite the best efforts. Absolute safety is an aspiration, not a guarantee. The true measure of resilience lies in how quickly danger is contained, how effectively people can escape, and how many lives can be protected even after failures begin. This places renewed importance on evacuation design, exterior firebreak strategies, and fire-resistant construction envelopes.

Third, rescue technology must continue to advance in step with urban form. Hong Kong has embraced digital transformation in finance, healthcare and transport. Fire safety should not lag behind. Advanced tools are not a replacement for human skill, but a force multiplier that can reduce risk to both residents and responders.

The death of a firefighter in this incident gives these questions particular weight. It is a reminder that beyond policy language and technical inquiry, the real cost of delay or underinvestment is carried by individuals and families.

The Wang Fuk Court fire is now part of Hong Kong’s shared history. Like earlier tragedies, it will eventually recede from daily headlines. What should not fade, however, is the resolve to treat it as a turning point rather than a closed chapter.

Cities are built not only from steel and concrete but from assumptions. The assumption that traditional scaffolding methods remain sufficient. The assumption that enforcement capacity will always scale with construction demand. The assumption that rescue practices developed decades ago will continue to match modern urban risks. This fire has tested those assumptions in the harshest possible way.

What Hong Kong now owes the 160 lives lost is not only remembrance, but renewed commitment to thoughtful improvement. Prevention, enforcement and rescue must evolve together. Only then can a city defined by vertical growth give its residents the deeper assurance that safety is rising alongside it.

The author is chairman of the Asia MarTech Society and sits on the advisory boards of several professional organizations, including two universities.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.