Tai Po fire hearing: estate manager questioned over fire alarm shutdown – as it happened
ISS EastPoint clerk also says authorised votes used in ballots deciding major issues at housing estate were never verified
The seventh session of the independent inquiry into Hong Kong's deadliest fire in decades focused on ISS EastPoint, the property management firm for Wang Fuk Court.
The blaze, which started on November 26 last year and raged through seven of Wang Fuk Court’s eight towers for about 43 hours, killed 168 people and displaced nearly 5,000 residents.
ISS clerk Lok Sin-ying, who was stationed at the estate, resumed her testimony on Wednesday morning before the judge-led committee.
On Tuesday, Lok told the committee she was unaware of the fire alarm system’s deactivation despite handling related shutdown notices.
Witnesses appearing on Wednesday included other ISS EastPoint employees, such as a building attendant, a technical officer, a carpenter and an electrician.
The deactivation of the fire alarm was one of the six factors behind the tragedy flagged by Victor Dawes SC, lead counsel of the committee’s legal team, during his two-day opening statement.
Follow our live updates on the seventh session of the evidential hearing.
Reporting by Leopold Chen and Edith Lin
More from our coverage: