59. The total number of squatter fires during the year was 40, but 30 of these involved only a few huts. The numbers made homeless in the 10 larger fires ranged from 250 to 6,000 and the total number of persons burned out during the year in squatter fires was about 14,000.
60. As in previous years the usual emergency relief measures were taken after these fires. These require the close co-operation of at least four separate Government departments. The first step is always the registration by the Social Welfare Office of the fire victims and this is started immediately after the fire or even before the fire has been extinguished. Those registered are given free meals at emergency feeding centres established by the Social Welfare Office for periods of up to one month and usually receive gifts of blankets and clothing from charitable organizations. After registration the homeless are normally allocated small temporary sites on the streets or pavements by the Squatter Control Section of the Resettlement Department, assisted by the Police Force, and on these the fire victims build themselves small huts in which they will live until it becomes possible to offer them some form of resettlement. The Urban Services Department provides temporary latrines and the Water Works Office temporary stand-pipes. If, how- ever, the fire is on a steep, rocky hillside which will clearly not be required for permanent development for many years, if ever, the policy now is to allow the homeless to rebuild their huts on or near the fire site, care being taken that the new huts are well spaced and have fire-proof roofs in order to reduce the risk of another fire.
61. It is not the policy to allow squatter fires to disrupt the programme for the clearance of sites urgently required for important projects such as new schools, housing estates and factories. The inconvenience that fire victims cause to the residents of the streets on which their temporary huts are built has to be balanced against the adverse effect on the welfare and prosperity of large sections of the Colony's population which would result if new projects to provide either housing, schooling or employment had to be deferred because the necessary sites were encumbered by squatters.
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