QUESTION NO. 7
Reply by the Hon. D.P.H. Liao, CBE, JP,
Secretary for District Administration,
to a question by the Hon. CHEUNG Yan-lung, OBE, JP, in Legislative Council on 14 January 1987
QUESTION: With the commencement of the dry season, will
Government inform this Council:
(a)
what are the existing measures for the prevention of squatter fires;
(b)
how Government evaluates the effectiveness of such measures; and
(c)
whether there are any plans to improve the current measures?
Sir,
I made a reply to a similar question on the measures
undertaken by the Government to prevent squatter fires in May
1986. To reiterate, such measures include fire watch teams,
publicity programmes, control of illegal tapping of electricity
and the squatter area improvement programme . As regards
evaluation and improvement of the current fire prevention
measures, this is achieved through the continuous effort of
departments concerned including Fire Services Department, the
Housing Department and the City and New Territories Administration.
The best way to illustrate the effectiveness of these efforts
is the marked reduction in both the number of large scale fires
and the fire victims involved.
To date, 187 fire watch teams of local volunteers have
been formed in all the major squatter areas in conjunction with
the District Boards. Their primary role is to increase awareness
among residents, promote better fire precaution measures and to
raise fire alarms on detection of a fire.
/The