ENG-1999 — Page 372

PUBLIC ORDER

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The department's establishment of 9 290 staff comprised 8 500 uniformed and 790 civilian members. It is one of the world's finest fire brigades, with well-trained personnel, advanced communication systems, and modern equipment and appliances. The department responded to 43 564 fire calls, 21 035 special service calls and 484 923 ambulance calls in 1999, representing an average of 1 506 calls a day.

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To further efforts in fire prevention, the former Fire Protection Command was split into two separate commands the Fire Safety Command and the Licensing and Control Command -- from June 1. Under the Enhanced Productivity Programme, the department launched a pilot training scheme on cardiac-pulmonary resuscitation. for staff of homes for the elderly to optimise the survival rate in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases.

Fire Suppression

Of the 43 564 fire calls received in 1999, 19 were classified as major fires of No. 3 alarm and above. Careless handling or disposal of smoking materials was still the major cause of fires, totalling 5 489 cases in all, followed by accidents involving the preparation of foodstuffs and electrical faults, which accounted for 2 869 and 1 344 cases respectively. Unwanted alarms, caused mainly by faulty automatic alarm systems or their poor positioning, contributed to about 58.7 per cent of the total number of fire calls.

In 1999, fires claimed 29 lives and 595 persons, including 18 firemen, were injured. Fire Services personnel rescued 3 652 people. Notable fires during the year included a No. 3 alarm blaze at a suspected illegal fuel-dispensing station at Ho Sheung Heung, Sheung Shui, on July 28 and the airliner crash at the Hong Kong International Airport on August 22.

Special Services

The department also provides wide-ranging rescue services in incidents such as traffic accidents, people trapped in lifts or locked in rooms, gas leakages, house collapses, flooding, landslides, industrial accidents and attempts by persons to jump from a height. The department handled 21 035 emergency special service calls in 1999.

Major incidents included: a traffic accident on the Texaco Road Flyover in Tsuen Wan on January 7 which claimed four lives; a traffic accident on Tuen Mun Highway on May 16 in which five people were killed; and the passage of Typhoon York on September 16 when the Fire Services responded to about 1 600 emergency calls while the No. 10 Hurricane Signal was raised.

Ambulance Services

The demand for emergency ambulance services continued to rise. During the year, ambulances answered 421 146 emergency calls, representing an increase of 6.76 per cent compared with 1998.

A 12-minute response time has been adopted as the performance indicator for emergency ambulance services since November 1998. All ambulances and ambulance aid motorcycles have been equipped with automatic external defibrillators.

The programme to commission the third Mobile Casualty Treatment Centre to strengthen the department's ability to handle multiple-casualty incidents will be completed in mid-2000. There are also plans to enhance the paramedic ambulance