obstruction of means of escape from fire and indicate a growing awareness of civic responsibilities. Very often hazards can and are removed by firm but tactful warnings, and only when this fail are fire hazard notices served under section 7B of the Fire Service Ordinance 32 of 1954. 5,018 of these notices were served during the year and in about 96% of the cases the hazards were removed without resort to legal action; in the other 4% of the cases legal action was taken to eradicate the hazards.
Complaints
80. We maintain a round the clock service to receive complaints from the public about fire hazards and receive an average of 500 per month. An increasing proportion of these are of a genuine nature, but we continue to receive a fair percentage which are spiteful or malicious. These waste many hours and often days of the Bureau's time and generate ill-informed criticism of the Service for lack of action in matters which are in fact out of our jurisdiction and amount to disputes between various occupants of premises who seek the Fire Prevention Bureau's intervention as a last resort to gain their own ends.
81. Too many buildings, which when constructed provided reason- able fire security, are within a short while of their occupation turned into death traps by unauthorized alterations for purely selfish interests. Smoke lobby doors are removed; staircase ventilation openings are blocked up; openings are knocked into fire resisting walls willy-nilly; staircases are removed or their flights resited; openings are made in floors, etc. The Fire Prevention Bureau prosecutes a relentless campaign against these dangerous infringements, but in a city as densely developed as Hong Kong it is quite impossible to keep pace with the rate at which these hazards are created. Hazards are frequently eradi- cated for little more than the time it takes fire 'inspectors' to check the building and are then reinstated.
82. Ignorance is frequently responsible for the generation of hazards, but experience has shown that most violations are created by unscrupulous persons who by virtue of their background of education and experience should know better and who certainly cannot plead ignorance of their responsibilities or of the logical consequence of their acts or omissions.
83. Small 'shoe-string' industrial undertakings form a proportion of the elements in the community who repeatedly ignore fire safety requirements, but department stores are by far the worst offenders'.
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