40. Twelve fires causing structural damage were reported. In a fire which occurred at Nos. 21 to 25 Sa Po Road, the building was completely gutted. The building was a three-storey structure with wooden floors, stairs and roofs without egress to roofs. Four of the inmates were burned to death.
41. During the typhoon of 2nd September, a conflagration broke out at Nos. 131 to 137 Connaught Road West. The buildings were of the early tenement type, and with the exception of two houses, the roofs, floors and stairs were of wooden construction. Egress to roofs was provided. Practically all the wooden floors and stairs collapsed, but little damage was done to walls. Several lives were lost, but as the ground floors were flooded by heavy seas from the harbour, the cause of death could not be ascertained.
42. It is noted that fires in houses of reinforced concrete construction were confined mostly to the floors in which the outbreak occurred, and in the majority of cases resultant damage was slight.
43. Nineteen collapses were reported, eleven of which occurred as a result of the very severe typhoon experienced on the 2nd September. The total casualties for the year due to collapses amounted to two. A serious accident occurred during the operation of a piling plant on Kowloon Inland Lot No. 3871, Canton Road. The accident was attributed to an exceptionally severe and sudden gust of wind, which caused the plant to overturn. Six people were killed and several injured.
44. Three landslips occurred as a result of the heavy rains. One casualty occurred as the result of a quantity of overhanging decomposed granite and boulders falling on to a shed at Tai Kok Tsui (Kowloon Quarry No. 14).
45. Plans were approved for the construction of a seawall and the reclamation of an area comprising 2,137,000 square feet at Tsun Wan Marine Lot No. 8. Preparation work only was carried out.
46. The Chinese Cemeteries in Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon were maintained in good order and provision was made for additional burial spaces. An area at Hammer Hill was gazetted as an urning ground, and preliminary survey work was carried out with a view to making this area available in 1939, on which date it is expected Ap Lei Chau will be unable to accommodate any additional urns. Very few burials took place at Ho Man Tin or Cheung Sha Wan, the main volume going to No. 7 Cemetery (Customs Pass). Chai Wan Cemetery is rapidly approaching saturation point, and it was found necessary to gazette a new area (Chai Wan Extension) which is in course of formation. Usual maintenance and minor works were executed in Kai Lung Wan and Mount Caroline Cemeteries.