香港大埔旺福苑总值约3.3亿港元（约4,200万美元）的翻新工程在承包、材料与监管环节累积多年失误，最终在11月26日导致七座住宅失火并造成至少151人死亡。被捕的Prestige Construction & Engineering在2023年已因安全违规受罚，却在57份标书中仍获20/30分并中标。调查显示可燃泡沫板覆盖窗面、警报系统在检验后仍失灵，且法定安全日志对公众不透明。这些问题跨越承包商、工程师、业主立案法团与政府监管部门，暴露系统性失职。

媒体对“竹棚导致火势”的集中报道被作者视为偏离核心责任的叙事，使真正疑点——易燃网罩、泡沫板与审批漏洞——被遮蔽。FactWire在2017年已揭示至少13项工程存在轮流中标模式，与围标相符，但其于2022年在国安压力下关闭。类似2023年上海高楼火灾的模式再度出现：早期公众怒火与网络调查遭到压制，问责空间被收窄。悼念与募捐自发行为迅速被纳入政治审视，连发起独立调查联署的学生亦被国安部门问询。

在立法会选举定于12月7日举行的背景下，亲北京议员拒绝调整安排，称灾难“不影响全港”。作者指出，在民主派被清除与独立媒体被弱化后，公共监督体系塌陷，使灾难被叙述为“文化与物理”的意外而非可预防的人祸。真正的问责只能来自幸存者记录、流亡记者追踪标案链、专业群体持续调查，以及国际机构抵制“竹棚叙事”的遗忘压力。

The HK$330 million (about USD 42 million) Wang Fuk Court renovation accumulated years of contracting, materials, and regulatory failures before the Nov. 26 fire that destroyed seven residential blocks and killed at least 151 people. Prestige Construction & Engineering, previously fined in 2023, still ranked highest among 57 bidders with a 20/30 score. Early findings show flammable foam boards covering windows, malfunctioning alarms despite inspections, and safety logs inaccessible to the public, implicating contractors, engineers, owners’ corporations, and regulators in systemic negligence.

Global media fixation on “bamboo scaffolds” is described as a diversion that obscures the documented role of mesh nets, foam plates, and oversight gaps. FactWire had already identified rotating-bid patterns across at least 13 projects in 2017, but the outlet shut down in 2022 under national security pressure. The pattern mirrors the 2010 Shanghai blaze: initial public scrutiny curtailed, investigators pressured, and the disaster reframed as an accident. Mourning and volunteer aid were quickly politicized, and even the student who launched a petition for independent inquiry was questioned by national security police.

With Legislative Council elections scheduled for Dec. 7, pro-Beijing lawmakers insisted on no changes, framing the disaster as a district-level issue. The author argues that after the dismantling of the pro-democracy camp and weakening of independent media, institutional oversight collapsed, enabling authorities to recast the catastrophe as cultural or physical misfortune rather than preventable failure. Meaningful accountability must come from survivors’ documentation, exiled journalists tracing tender networks, professional investigators, and international actors resisting the “bamboo narrative” and the wider pressure to forget.