Tai Po probe: workers turned off fire safety system, disregarding regulations

Witnesses from property management company ISS EastPoint leave the hearing after Wednesday morning’s session.

Photo: Karma Lo Staff at the property management company at Hong Kong’s inferno-ravaged Wang Fuk Court housing estate acted with disregard for legal requirements, taking such actions as deactivating the fire safety system despite knowing they needed a registered contractor to do so, an evidential hearing has been told.

Victor Dawes, lead counsel for an independent committee investigating the November 26 blaze that claimed 168 lives, also pointed to the management company’s workflow as a contributing factor in the shutdown of the Tai Po estate’s fire alarm system on Wednesday, the seventh day of the hearing.

Dawes identified the fire alarm system’s deactivation as one of six “human factors” that led to the huge death toll at the estate, which was undergoing renovations when the blaze swept through seven of its eight residential blocks.

A clerk at the property management company, ISS EastPoint, told the hearing on Tuesday that she was unaware that fire alarms had been deactivated after the hose reel system was shut down for water tank repairs.

ISS electrician Law Kwok-shui told the committee on Wednesday that he received an order from the estate management office to help Prestige Construction and Engineering, the contractor for the HK$336 million (US$43 million) renovation project, drain fire services water tanks between July and August.

Law Kwok-shui, an electrician of ISS EastPoint, heads into the hearing.

Photo: Karma Lo Law said he “followed the order” and turned off the main switches for the fire safety system, despite knowing that fire equipment-related work should be conducted by a registered contractor. “The order had been issued.

I was worried about a penalty at work,” he said.

Law said he once heard from a fire services equipment contractor that the main switch had to be turned off to stop the pumps.

He said he did not know that turning off the switch would cut power to the fire alarm or that he could have switched off another button without deactivating it. “If I had known it, I definitely would not have switched it off,” Law said.

His colleague, estate carpenter Lee Shing-foo, said he told Law that only a registered contractor could handle work related to fire safety equipment and should have notified the Fire Services Department.

Lee said Law’s immediate reply was that they should just follow the order.

Law, however, said he

原文链接: 南华早报