Fire_Services_1966-1967 — Page 23

86. A recent amendment to the Fire Services Ordinance provided for the serving of fire hazard abatement notices by post and this has resulted in considerable time-saving since previously all notices were served by hand.

Complaints

87. Complaints from the general public can be received at any time of the day or night and duty Fire Prevention Officers are available throughout the 24 hours to deal with such matters. The majority of complaints refer to genuine infringements, but quite a number are of a malicious nature, often related to tenant disputes and these often result in a great deal of wasted time. Officers investigating reported obstructions to means of escape often find that these are removed in their presence, or after receipt of a fire hazard notice, only to re-appear at some later date. To ensure that this does not occur would require constant policing of all buildings. The staff required precludes this course of action, neither is it particularly desirable as this is considered a responsibility of the occupants. Unfortunately some owners and occupiers of many buildings choose to ignore the legal and moral obligations involved in multi-storey development and consequently the well being of countless people is unnecessarily exposed to possible fire hazards.

New Building Plans

88. A total of 2,016 project plans were received and processed during the year. This is an increase of 586 over the previous year and whilst these figures do not necessarily indicate the number of buildings erected they must surely indicate that Hong Kong's redevelopment continues apace.

Fire Service Installations

89. Inspections of private premises in accordance with the provisions of the Building Ordinance resulted in 888 completed installations being passed during the year.

90. These inspections have highlighted the need for some form of control over the standards of fire service installations and a Fire Engineers Control Bill is in the course of being introduced for the purpose of ensuring installations are of a satisfactory standard.

91. Poor installations necessitated 316 re-inspections being made during the year resulting in loss of valuable time in a section of the Bureau which is already working to capacity.

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