PUBLIC ORDER
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reflects the true nature of the work and responsibilities of the department. Fire fighting, fire prevention and ambulance duties are only two of the many demands it must now meet. It is called upon also to rescue and give succour to persons involved in traffic and industrial accidents, as well as those trapped in house collapses and landslides during rainstorms and typhoons. Of the 3,452 calls received by the service in 1965 (excluding ambulance calls), 17 per cent were to incidents at which lives were in peril but which did not involve fire. In Fire Service terminology, these calls are referred to as 'special service calls' and range from persons trapped in lifts to rockfalls burying many people. Some of the more regular calls in this category involve persons who have fallen into the sea, persons trapped in machinery, and major traffic accidents. To meet these demands it has been necessary to develop specialized search and rescue divisions composed of exceptionally fit and mentally agile personnel who show above normal technical aptitudes.
On 24th August all available units from Kowloon and fireboats were sent to Yau Tong Bay, near Kwun Tong, when an American transport aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Kai Tak. Fifty- eight men lost their lives, another died later in hospital, and 12 were rescued. The aircraft veered sharply to the left soon after becoming airborne and according to eye-witnesses one of its wings hit the water and broke off. The aircraft came down near the Kwun Tong reclamation, burst into flames and sank in 30 feet of water. Workers from a nearby barge and the reclamation site swam through wreck- age and burning fuel to bring the survivors ashore, and firemen remained at the scene 36 hours removing the casualties. Most of the men aboard the aircraft were Marines who had been on leave in Hong Kong.
The rapid industrialization of the Colony has increased the problems of fire prevention and broadened the technological fields in which firemen must achieve a high standard of knowledge. There are many difficult problems, not the least being to persuade some factory managements to discriminate between tolerable fire safety elements and dangerous practices. On the whole, however, managements co-operate whole-heartedly with the Fire Prevention Bureau and show increasing enthusiasm for free and frank dis- cussion of the fire hazards which are concomitant to their businesses. Within the service, training programmes are being intensified and