A contractor who had been providing fire services equipment for Wang Fuk Court told an independent committee investigating the inferno which destroyed the estate that his company did “more good than harm” by proceeding with maintenance work despite not being able to test the system at the time.

The hearing on the deadly inferno, which occurred at the Tai Po residential estate in November, heard on Tuesday that fire service equipment installed during the maintenance visit, which took place on October 16, more than a month before the fire, could not be tested because the water tanks were empty.

Chung Kit-man, the director and engineer at Victory Fire Engineering, said his company did not bear significant responsibility for the lack of testing.

He told the inquiry he had informed the Fire Services Department the newly installed equipment could still be used despite lacking a formal certificate and that he believed the new equipment resulted in improvements to the system.

Chung testified that he had notified the estate's property management company, ISS EastPoint, that the fire system had been switched off following another maintenance visit on November 19.

Richard Khaw, the lawyer representing ISS, questioned whether Chung had followed up or offered suggestions to the management company on what to do.

Chung replied that he had learned another contractor had shut off the main switches, remarking that it is “industry practice to not teach others how to do their job.”

He described his company’s relationship with the management company as purely that of a client and a contractor and said he felt “he had already done too much” by informing them that the system was offline.

The committee also heard that annual inspections conducted by Victory Fire on Wang Chi and Wang Yan houses, two of the estate's eight blocks, in March 2025 ended with checkboxes indicating problems with the water injection and storage capabilities of the fire water tanks.

These issues, however, were not flagged in a certificate filed with the Fire Services Department.

Chung admitted he had signed the form without paying it much attention, adding that the boxes had been ticked in error.

But he stressed that the tanks had no structural problems.

The head of the committee, David Lok, questioned how the company could then have ensured there was no issue.

Chung said workers had "opened the tanks to look and saw no issues”, adding that any leakage would have left water marks on the rooftop that would have been spotted by the property management.

The hearing also heard that Victory Fire's maintenance work only began in October – seven months after the annual inspection.

Chung said the delay was caused by the company's having to wait for emergency lighting supplies.

One of the witnesses following Chung in testifying in the afternoon was Lok Sin-yang, a clerk at the housing estate and the first witness from ISS.

Evidence presented at the hearing showed she issued a job order to two workers to help Prestige Construction and Engineering – the main contractor for the major-renovations work being carried out at the time of the fire – drain water from fire water tanks, as part of maintenance work, around four months before the disaster.

Lok testified that she arranged for the workers in line with the needs of Prestige.

But one of the workers, electrician Law Kwok-shui, said in a written submission that he had informed Lok that only a fire services licence holder could be allowed to handle such work.

Lok told the inquiry she could not remember if Law had consulted her.

The hearing was set to continue on Wednesday, with more witnesses from ISS expected to testify.



Edited by Thomas McAlinden