On November 26, a level 5 fire broke out at Hong Fuk Court in Tai Po, Hong Kong, resulting in over a hundred deaths. Afterwards, many residents of the various buildings angrily lodged complaints, accusing that the fire alarm did not go off during the incident. After inspection, the fire department found that in eight buildings, the fire alarm was not functioning properly. Although the systems were not switched off, no sound was emitted. The fire department will take enforcement action against the equipment contractors.
According to Hong Kong 01, a purported CCTV footage from inside Hong Kin House at Hong Fuk Court during the incident has circulated online. The footage shows that during the fire, a male resident tried to hit the fire alarm with a hard object, but the alarm never went off. A female resident can be heard saying, “It’s burning really bad over there.”
The video shocked netizens, who criticized it harshly, though some questioned whether the footage was actually from Hong Kin House.
On November 26, at 2:51 p.m., a fire was reported at Hong Fuk Court, and by 6:22 p.m. the alarm was raised to level 5. The blaze affected seven buildings, including Hong Kin House.
On Monday (the 1st) around 5 p.m., a netizen posted a video on Threads, claiming it to be surveillance footage from inside Hong Kin House during the incident, with the comment, “CCTV outside a certain unit of Hong Kin House: that (fire) alarm won’t go off when pressed.”
Female Resident: It's burning really badly over there, it’s life-threatening!
The 23-second video shows the timestamp as 3:24 p.m. on November 26. A man in black walks up to the fire alarm in the corridor and hits it with a hard object, making a “bang bang” sound, but the alarm does not sound at all.
The man tries several more times to press the alarm, but there’s still no response. As he walks towards the stairs, a female resident approaches and asks, “Are there any fire extinguishers downstairs? It's burning really badly over there!” After the man replies “No,” he leaves towards the stairs.
Netizens were shocked after watching the video. Some commented, “Such a large facility and the whole block was covered by a net, yet the alarm wouldn’t sound,” “The fire alarm not going off really killed a lot of people,” “There must be a problem if it doesn’t go off,” “Turns out people didn’t know, if you smash the cover hard enough the alarm should go off, if it doesn’t, there’s definitely an issue. Also possible he didn’t hit hard enough.” But some questioned whether the footage was really filmed at Hong Kin House.