TNAG-1607-FCO40-22122-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 82

QUESTION NO. 7

Reply by the Hon. D.P.H. Liao, CBE, JP,

Secretary for District Administration,

to a question by the Hon. CHEUNG Yan-lung, OBE, JP, in Legislative Council on 14 January 1987

QUESTION: With the commencement of the dry season, will

Government inform this Council:

(a)

what are the existing measures for the prevention of squatter fires;

(b)

how Government evaluates the effectiveness of such measures; and

(c)

whether there are any plans to improve the current measures?

Sir,

I made a reply to a similar question on the measures

undertaken by the Government to prevent squatter fires in May

1986. To reiterate, such measures include fire watch teams,

publicity programmes, control of illegal tapping of electricity

and the squatter area improvement programme . As regards

evaluation and improvement of the current fire prevention

measures, this is achieved through the continuous effort of

departments concerned including Fire Services Department, the

Housing Department and the City and New Territories Administration.

The best way to illustrate the effectiveness of these efforts

is the marked reduction in both the number of large scale fires

and the fire victims involved.

To date, 187 fire watch teams of local volunteers have

been formed in all the major squatter areas in conjunction with

the District Boards. Their primary role is to increase awareness

among residents, promote better fire precaution measures and to

raise fire alarms on detection of a fire.

/The