Tai Po hearing: firm did not inspect fire systems since March 2025 – as it happened
Contract between Victory Fire and property management company ISS EastPoint stipulated that the safety system had to be inspected quarterly
Public hearings by a judge-led independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades entered their sixth day and focused on the deactivation of the fire alarm systems at the Wang Fuk Court housing estate.
Chung Kit-man, director and engineer of Victory Fire Engineering, the contractor responsible for the estate’s fire services equipment, continued his testimony on Tuesday morning. He was questioned by a committee lawyer on whether the cables for the fire alarm system met quality standards.
Chung was also asked about the findings of an annual inspection flagging problems with the estate’s water tanks – problems he failed to mention in a certificate filed with the Fire Services Department.
He told the committee that he had asked the estate’s management office five days before the blaze to reactivate the fire safety system, so he could test some newly installed equipment.
Responding to questions by a government lawyer in the afternoon, Chung said Victory Fire failed to inspect the fire safety system on a quarterly basis since March 2025, as stipulated in its contract with property management company ISS EastPoint.
The independent committee heard on Monday that the fire alarm and firefighting pump systems at the Tai Po estate were found to have been switched off a week before the tragedy that killed 168 people struck, with no action taken to reactivate them.
Follow our live updates on the sixth day of the hearing.
Reporting by Leopold Chen, Matthew Cheng and Jeffie Lam.
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