Overview
- Firefighter Ho Wai-ho, 37, was honored with full funeral rites attended by top officials, with his coffin draped in the Hong Kong flag before burial at Gallant Garden.
- His cortege passed Wang Fuk Court and the Sha Tin Fire Station where he served, as colleagues and residents offered salutes, wreaths and messages of thanks.
- Ho, a nine-year veteran of the Fire Services Department, was posthumously awarded the title of Senior Fireman.
- The Nov. 26 blaze engulfed seven towers in Tai Po, killed about 160 people and displaced nearly 5,000 residents now housed in temporary accommodation.
- Authorities have cited substandard nylon scaffolding netting and foam window boards as factors in the fire’s rapid spread, as arrests proceed and new netting checks are ordered under the nine-month inquiry.