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We saw that with the Garley Building, with the things that were piled on the stairs and which helped to produce the incineration. Where there are fire-doors, people have got to make sure that they are closed. Because if they are not closed, smoke gets into the stairs and into the whole building and we have seen today, again, how quickly people are overwhelmed by smoke in these conditions.

So I just want to repeat this message, and I am sorry that each of these tragedies makes it all the more bleak but all the more important. Government has to do more to raise safety standards, but the community has to be part of that campaign. We are good as a community, in some areas, at joining together to prevent bad things happening.

The Fight Crime Committees are one of the reasons why we have managed to reduce crime in Hong Kong. We have got to show as much concern about safety- standards and particularly about fire safety-standards, otherwise we are going to go on seeing awful tragedies like this one.

The Fire Services Department will of course be producing a report as soon as possible, and we will see whether there are lessons that can be learned from that. But there is one lesson the whole community has got to learn, and that is we have to take care and we have to recognise how appalling a menace fire can be, particularly in a city like this where so many people live in high-rise blocks and work in high-rise blocks.

I would like to offer my sympathy and my condolences to all those who have been bereaved, to all those who have lost a loved one, whether a close friend or a member of their family. And I would like to offer my sympathy to all those who have been injured and all those who are related to the injured.

The best tribute we could pay to those who have been bereaved is to try our hardest to stop this sort of thing happening with such appalling regularity in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a great city in most respects, but in this respect I am afraid it is not. Any questions?

Reporter: How about the patients' conditions?

Governor: That is not for me to say, I must leave that to the medical staff. But as you'll know, the patients are getting the best possible treatment in a very good hospital. Thank you very much.

End

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