XN000022-1996-11-20 — Page 2

Governor's speaks on the no.5 alarm fire in Kowloon

The following is the transcript of what the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said today (Wednesday) after visiting the scene of the no 5 alarm fire in Kowloon:

Governor: I wanted to come here this evening to pay a particular tribute to our fire service and to our police who've done a magnificent job under extremely harrowing circumstances. This has obviously been an appalling fire which has been handled with very great bravery and very great competence by our fire services and by the police and ambulance service. I want to pay a particular tribute to our fire service officers who've behaved with the bravery and the competence which you'd expect of them. As you know, we are at present legislating to tighten up the regulations which we hope, we hope, will prevent disasters like this happening in the future. There are obviously needs to be investigations into exactly what has happened this evening and I don't want to say anything prematurely. I am now going to go to the hospital to see the medical staff there and to see some of the relatives of those who've been injured and to see some of those who've themselves been injured. But above all this evening I want to pay tribute to our very, very brave fire service officers, and to everybody who's been involved in dealing with this disaster.

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Governor's media session after visiting hospital

The following is the transcript of the media session of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after visiting the fire victims in Queen Elizabeth Hospital today (Wednesday):

Governor: Can I just make one plea to you. I know you've got your job to do, and I know you want to take photographs and write down what has been happening. But there're a lot of sick people here and their needs and concerns are much more important than yours. I'll be very grateful if we could keep things as quiet as possible and as orderly as possible. Alright, is that a deal? As you wouldn't like to be in hospital and they didn't like to be in hospital, alright?

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