A Wang Fuk Court building management officer was unaware that rooftop water tanks were drained before the fatal fire in Tai Po district on Nov 26, an independent committee investigating the blaze heard on Wednesday.

Lam Man-yan, one of six building management staff members from the ISS EastPoint Properties Ltd to testify on Wednesday, said he only discovered on the afternoon of the blaze that the tanks were empty. Lam, a technical officer, had resigned in April last year before returning in October.

The estate’s fire service installation contractor told him shortly before the fire that their maintenance work was incomplete, as they had been unable to conduct tests due to empty water tanks, Lam said.

Under questioning by committee counsel Victor Dawes, Lam said that he did not check the work orders, adding that he trusted workers to report issues, which prompted the committee chairman David Lok Kai-hong to ask, “Then what did you do?”

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The officer also said he had no time to review a key shutdown notice for the fire system before the fire.

Senior building attendant Wong Pak-shing and a clerk Lok Sin-ying said that they had issued job orders directing ISS workers to assist the main maintenance contractor Prestige Construction and Engineering Co, Ltd in emptying the rooftop firefighting water tanks. Electrician Law Kwok-shui and carpenter Lee Shing-foo were tasked with assisting them.

Law said that, according to his understanding, emptying the water tanks required the upfeed pump to be switched off, the water to be drained, and the main power to the fire booster pump to be turned off.

READ MORE: Fire safety work incomplete, unusual practices at Wang Fuk Court before deadly blaze

Although both Law and Lee were aware that only registered contractors were permitted to handle the fire safety system, they completed their task.

But they said they were not aware that the mains power also controlled the fire alarm systems, and they did not notify other building management officers that it had been shut down.

Wong described his role as that of a “messenger” when handling complaints about workers smoking on-site, adding that the employers should have managed the contractor’s workers.

READ MORE: Tai Po fire victims to retrieve belongings from April 20

Lok said that proxy votes were commonly used during owners’ meetings, with over 100 such votes involved each time, agreeing these votes might have significantly affected the outcomes. The management office, however, did not conduct spot checks or verify the proxy votes, contacting owners only if information was missing.

Some residents earlier testified that they had noticed unfamiliar participants sitting in owners’ meetings. Lok said the management did not verify whether attendees were actually owners — adding that “whoever wanted to come in could come in”. Some owners earlier said that they were not allowed to enter the venue even though it was not full.

Contact the writer at stacyshi@chinadailyhk.com