A judge-led panel investigating the causes of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, which killed 168 people in Tai Po, concluded its 12th day of evidential hearings on Wednesday.

Representatives from the Fire Services Department and police testified before the independent committee looking into the Wang Fuk Court blaze and the systemic problems it revealed in the city’s building maintenance sector.

Sunny Wong Sze-lut, the Fire Services Department’s deputy chief fire officer for operational support and professional development, explained to the committee why its handling of emergency calls was prolonged, why drones and helicopters were not used to fight the fire, and why 100-metre ladders were also unsuitable.

Police Superintendent Cheng Ka-chun, who heads the force’s Disaster Victim Identification Unit, recounted how the unit had repeatedly and thoroughly searched flats where missing persons were reported, saying it was “impossible” that the death toll was higher than the reported 168.

In the previous session, the committee heard from frontline firefighters who described the inferno as “unprecedented” and said it spread much faster than usual.

They also said the Fire Services Department had no established guidelines for handling deactivated fire alarms, one of six “human factors” identified by the committee’s lead counsel, Victor Dawes, as contributing to the catastrophic toll.

Earlier sessions revealed that the department had never conducted fire risk assessments at the housing estate, which was under renovation.

Fire services installation contractor China Status Development and Engineering also admitted to the committee that it had acted as a “rubber stamp” by filing shutdown notices to the department on behalf of renovation contractor Prestige Construction and Engineering in order to allow renovation of the fire service tanks. Its staff had never inspected the site, let alone assessed the necessity of the system shutdown.

Follow our live updates as the hearings resume.

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