A final investigation has concluded that the cause of the massive fire at the Hong Kong Wang Fuk Court apartment complex, which claimed 168 lives last year, was highly likely a 'cigarette butt.'

The fire that broke out on November 26 last year at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex in the Hong Kong suburb of Tai Po left 168 people dead and 79 injured. The incident, in which seven of the complex's eight blocks were engulfed in flames, was recorded as Hong Kong's worst human casualty disaster in 77 years. In December of last year, immediately after the fire, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee established an independent commission to determine the cause, punish those responsible, and devise measures to prevent a recurrence. During this process, authorities referred seven individuals, including responsible parties from the consulting and construction firms involved in the complex's maintenance work, to trial in June.

According to the final report recently released by the independent commission, the fire's point of origin is believed to be the outdoor terrace outside units 104 and 105 of Wang Cheung House (宏昌閣) within the complex. Approximately two-meter-high piles of polystyrene boards, safety nets, and other flammable materials that had accumulated during maintenance work were densely packed at the location.

Based on witness testimonies and analysis of closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, the commission concluded that there is a high probability the fire started when a lit cigarette butt ignited these flammable materials between 2:30 p.m. and 2:43 p.m. on November 26 last year.

Safety deficiencies, a keyword of the tragedy, were also brought to light. At the time, the complex was undergoing maintenance work, and escape routes were compromised as windows in emergency stairwells had been removed. During the fire, fire alarm systems in most of the blocks were turned off and fire hoses were blocked, allowing the flames to spread rapidly inside the buildings and resulting in massive casualties.

Locally, since the independent commission's hearings began earlier this year, there have been persistent criticisms that this fire was a 'man-made disaster' that could have been sufficiently prevented.