'Not a single drop of water': Plumber confirms fire tanks were dry a month before Wang Fuk Court fire

A plumber testified Wednesday that all five fire tanks at Wang Fuk Court were "completely empty" during renovation work — about a month before the estate's deadly blaze.

The testimony came during the independent committee's second round of public hearings this morning, with four witnesses scheduled to appear.

Among them was Tong Hing-lun, a plumber who joined Victory Fire Engineering in 2015 and said he had been involved in the estate's fire system since 2016.

The hearing heard that Tong found the emptied water tanks after attempting to test new fire hose nozzle installations at three blocks between October 16 and 17 last year.

Under cross-examination, Tong admitted he only personally checked tanks at three buildings — Wang Yan, Wang Tao and Wang Sun House — adding"there was not a single drop of water."

He stated that he found new tiles and construction tools inside the tanks, believing tiling work was underway.

After finding no water in the remaining five blocks the next day, Tong informed Lam Man-yan, a technical officer at ISS EastPoint Properties Limited, who told him the water had been drained for remedial work.

When asked why he instructed his colleague to reopen the water supply despite knowing the tanks were empty, Tong explained it was their standard precautionary procedure.

Tong claimed that he informed Chung Kit-man, a director and engineer at Victory Fire, stating that Lam had confirmed a shutdown notice had been posted.

However, Tong later admitted that he never followed up further on whether the tanks had been refilled, nor on whether the shutdown notice was properly in place—and that Chung did not instruct him to do so.

The hearing also saw WhatsApp messages between Chung and Cheng Tsz-ying, a property officer at ISS, regarding the emptied water tanks last October.

Chung told Cheng he couldn't finish the job without water and asked if the tank had been refilled, which she confirmed it had, sending 15 photos of the full tank — though most were taken in August or September, nearly two months earlier.

Suspicious, Chung forwarded the photos to a work group chat, writing “These aren't right. Useless."

Chung told the committee he wanted workers to check again whether the tanks had been refilled during remedial work in mid-November, but it was not carried out.

He admitted he simply requested documents and relied on accounts from frontline colleagues during the renovation, but insisted communication takes two sides.

When pressed on whether he should have paid more attention to the fire system, Chung acknowledged the practice as "not ideal" — but insisted: "We didn't close the fire tank valves."

Asked how things could be improved, Chung said he should have made more time for supervision despite his busy schedule.

He also agreed that the Fire Services Department should tighten regulations and that the licensing system should be stricter.