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LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS

Ambulance Services. The Fire Services Department provides a public ambulance service, which is augmented by the St John Ambulance Brigade and ambulances belonging to private hospitals.

Special Rescue Service. Heavy concentrations of population in cities usually result in large numbers of incidents where members of the public find themselves in a position of peril. Hong Kong is no exception. The department provides a round-the-clock service of rescue squads whose work includes the extricating of trapped persons from house collapses, the rescue of people from the harbour, attendance at suicidal attempts, gas poisonings, releasing trapped children from nullahs and a whole variety of similar incidents which require specialized knowledge.

The Special Rescue Service also provides trained skin divers who are stationed on Hong Kong Island and at the airport fire station, the latter being one of the best equipped in the Far East.

Fire Boats Division. The department operates four fire boats which provide protection for more than 66,000 vessels which use the harbour every year. They also assist and supply salt water for fighting fires on land. The fire boats range in size from the Alexander Grantham of 350 gross tons to 18 knot high-speed launches.

Organization. The Fire Services Department is organized in five main groups under a director. They are the headquarters staff and planning unit, the fire prevention bureau and three operational fire districts each under a district fire commander. Each group is sub- divided into a number of divisions.

The separation of the Colony by the harbour involving a journey of 20 minutes by vehicular ferry, presents unusual problems in mobilizing fire and ambulance service resources. To meet these problems each district operates separate fire and ambulance con- trols, whose operations are co-ordinated through a headquarters command post. In Hong Kong, control of resources must be sufficiently flexible to deal with the average daily total of 250 calls and capable of immediate expansion to deal with up to 50 calls an hour in times of disasters such as typhoons and flooding, house collapses and civil disturbances. The most modern fire fighting equipment available is used and this is supplemented by an effective VHF radio system and private wire service.