The Fire Services Department (FSD) on Friday explained its practice regarding fire safety system shutdowns, saying that it typically takes follow-up action only if a system has been shut down for over a year. The fire safety systems at Wang Fuk Court, however, were closed for maintenance for around seven months before the fire occurred, earlier evidence showed.

Keung Sai-ming, assistant director for licensing and certification of the FSD, made the comment during the 10th evidentiary hearing of an independent committee investigating November’s deadly Tai Po fire. He is the first government official to testify in the inquiry.

Keung said the department did not conduct “extraordinarily frequent” surprise checks against fire risks at estates undergoing major maintenance. However, under repeated questioning from committee counsel Victor Dawes, he agreed that occupied buildings undergoing such work pose a high risk.

One of Wang Fuk Court’s fire service installation contractors, China Status Development and Engineering Co Ltd, had submitted 16 applications to extend the shutdown of fire hydrant and hose reel systems, alongside a certificate of fire service installation and equipment, also known as an FS251, explicitly noting a leaking fire water tank.

Keung said that FSD’s fire installation supervision section follows an unwritten “one-year convention”, whereby officials contact property owners and contractors only if a defect remains unresolved beyond a one-year period.

He explained that most cases involving a shutdown notice are typically rectified within a year. Citing 2024 data, he said that out of about 6,000 cases involving fire safety system shutdowns, about 1,000 remained unfinished after nine months.

Dawes asked whether the FSD would still refrain from prosecution even after a year, offering only further advice. Keung did not directly answer, saying that prosecution falls under a separate mechanism.

“What worries us most is when nobody conducts annual inspections — then we simply don’t know if equipment has failed,” Keung said. “If there is a contractor to do it, we leave the matter to them.”

Dawes also questioned why repairs took over six months. Keung cited experience that leaking water tank projects can last seven to eight months. In response to Dawes’ challenge, Keung said he believes the timeline is neither improper nor unduly delayed.

Internal FSD records also showed discrepancies between the defect description on China Status’ FS251 certificate and what an inspecting officer recorded after an on-site visit on April 8, 2025, just one day after the FSD received the shutdown notice.

Keung noted a “major defect” after a phone call with the estate manager — a classification that would typically require action within two months if any noncompliance was found under department policy instructions.

However, Keung said that the front-line officer’s approach was “not ideal”, arguing that as stated in the FS251, a leaking water tank does not constitute a major defect, and thus no 60-day follow-up was required.

Dawes said that China Status submitted the FS251 certificate six months after applying to shut down the fire hydrant and hose reel systems — meaning that for six months, “no one was aware whether it was a major defect”.

The law stipulates that fire service installation contractors, after completing annual inspections, must submit an FS251 certificate within 14 days to prove the effectiveness of the systems.

China Status earlier testified that it submitted the FS251 certificate six months late and only after the FSD required the company to do so. But Keung said: “I asked everyone — no one did.” A surprised Dawes said: “That’s even worse?” — meaning nobody had followed up on the certificate for half a year.

Keung replied, “If you chase 300,000 certificates one by one, you’ll get some but lose track of others.”

Similarly, one FS251 certificate signed by another fire service installation contractor of Wang Fuk Court in December 2023 was faxed to the FSD only in August 2024 — an eight-month delay — and was not stamped by the department until November that year.

Dawes accused the system of being “completely meaningless”. Keung agreed, while blaming a heavy volume of paper submissions and limited data-entry employees, calling the delay “a challenge to overcome”. He added that the FSD will now mandate electronic submissions to reduce the time lag.

Contact the writer at stacyshi@chinadailyhk.com